A viral bookshelf has been a cause of horror for members of the public who are saying the ‘chaotic evil’ of the organisation is a good way to ‘shame’ yourself into reading unfinished books
A bookshelf has gone viral on social media app X after users were left horrified by the organisation. Whether it is alphabetical order or by genre, organising your bookshelf can be done in many, socially acceptable ways. But a recent post to the social media app for how to store “unfinished books” has gone viral.
Its virality is not because of how handy a tip it is, but because of the horrific state in which the books are left. Hundreds of comments and replies were left on the post, with many members of the public saying the terrible method of organising may “shame” someone into finishing their books.
An image of the books, opened, creased, and stacked on top of one another, was posted to the social media site. The picture has since garnered over 34,000 likes and many comments from concerned members of the public.
The user wrote: “Please enjoy my shelf where I store my unfinished books.” X users were stunned by the organisation technique, and while many were quick to write off the shelving layout, some seem to have figured out the reason behind the disarray.
One person wrote: “This is a good way for the mere shame to get you to read all of these.” There were few who agreed with this “shame” tactic though.
Many believed the usual way of organising books was superior, and that this tactic of keeping the book open to the page the reader left off at has left people horrified.
One X user wrote: “I’ve actually never enjoyed anything less this should be illegal.” Another added: “Please tell me this is rage bait.” A third described the bookshelf as “chaotic evil.”
Penguin Books’ Alice Vincent, the Features editor for the publishing house, said the perfect way to organise books was in a way which was “impossible to explain to anyone else.”
She wrote : “When I lived alone, my books were organised in a matter that made perfect sense to me, but was, essentially, impossible to explain to anyone else. Then I moved in with someone who enjoys alphabetising and a convoluted compromise has unfolded. It all starts with “the unread bookcase”, which does what it says on the tin and contains non-fiction and fiction.
“Once a book has been read (or abandoned), it moves to either the charity shop pile or the main bookshelves, which are alphabetised by the author’s last name. Despite being fairly large, we have to insist on a one-in, one-out policy because they’re pretty full.
“Chaos reigns, however, on the separate bookshelves where our distinct interests our housed ( gardening and theatre, respectively). There, as with the shelf of art books, I allow happy chaos to reign – books ordered by subject, size, sometimes colour and mostly hunch.”
Alice, nor her colleagues at Penguin Books, suggested the chaos of the viral X post, however.
