The #ShowUsYourShelves campaign invites you to show off your own personal library.
Well, we’ve all got to find a way to keep ourselves entertained during these hours of self-isolation, and a lot of us are turning to reading or spring cleaning for answers. Some, however, have found a way to combine the two, and they’ve been flaunting them in a lovely little Twitter campaign that started from HQ Stories, a branch of publishing house Harper Collins. (Featured image: Abigail Fenton, via Twitter)
CALLING ALL BOOK LOVERS! We know lots of people are staying home right now, so join us in brightening up Twitter the best way we know how… with books!
From your messy TBR piles to organised bookcases, we’d love you to #ShowUsYourShelves! Bonus points for plants… 📖🌿 pic.twitter.com/v8aPWSCKea
— HQ Stories (@HQstories) March 23, 2020
From there, it’s grown into a smorgasbord of delights for literature lovers, who can gaze at what is essentially book porn. Book porn which, I might add, that I am entirely here for!
Here you go. Admittedly they aren’t quite this tidy at the moment. But still… #ShowUsYourShelves pic.twitter.com/yMxLBmUlOb
— Simon Savidge (@SavidgeReads) March 23, 2020
Dividing lines are quickly appearing, however. First, there are those who submit to the rigid alphabetising of their books – a situation we’ll classify as “lawful good”.
Here is my #ShowUsYourShelves @HQstories arranged alphabetically
Not quite all of them, but most 🙂 pic.twitter.com/tAAteF2QCj
— BookmadBarlow (@BookmadB) March 23, 2020
#ShowUsYourShelves time to have a rearrange during the quarantine 🤔 #bookstagram #books pic.twitter.com/1D1zCDYX5m
— morganashley (@MorganAshleyM2) March 23, 2020
The daring amongst us, however, have opted for an aesthetic colour-coded display (and somewhat surprisingly for a staunch alphabetiser like myself, there are a lot of these people). What it lacks in organisation, it makes up for in flair, hence this is “chaotic good”.
#ShowUsYourShelves is a bandwagon I am more than happy to jump on.
Delighted to see colour-coding books was not nearly as much of a marmite interior design decision as my friends & family would have me believe pic.twitter.com/neJbVNGJbR
— Ginny Mills (@RIBAginny) March 23, 2020
Colour coding ftw. #ShowUsYourShelves pic.twitter.com/2fMeAHpzCk
— Holly Harley (@hollharl) March 23, 2020
Perfect timing for #showusyourshelves @hqstories because I spent all self-isolating weekend colour-coding mine. Never been a better time to stay in with a book, people! #bookshelfie #shelflife #shelfish pic.twitter.com/v18tvQXhmW
— Kate Fox (@foxymoronic) March 23, 2020
Here are mine @HQstories! Bonus sneak peek of my reading nook on the left 🤓📚 #ShowUsYourShelves pic.twitter.com/QHKxElLp7o
— Abigail Fenton (@abifenton) March 23, 2020
Then there are those operating wholly outside the law. This, of course, is “chaotic evil”.
Starting to think I *might* be messy #ShowUsYourShelves pic.twitter.com/gPzQ6Z9T7d
— megan (@mcswegan) March 23, 2020
That one is giving me an unstoppable urge to organise, to tidy, to generally make better, I’m afraid to say. Still, it’s a fun campaign to jump all over at the moment, and it doesn’t much matter if you lack the books, either. Look what these creative people have been up to…
The books are mine. The shoes are my boyfriend’s… #ShowUsYourShelves @HQstories pic.twitter.com/raKQqm2488
— Izzy Smith (@izsmith95) March 23, 2020
So #ShowUsYourShelves is trending so I might as well show off my Transformers collection pic.twitter.com/7r4oImSADV
— Collectotron 🔜 TFNation (@collectotron) March 23, 2020
#ShowUsYourShelves Deeply unfashionable I know but my CD collection. Alphabetical order if you’re interested. pic.twitter.com/1LbrMPjISI
— Liam Gillis (@Squeeam) March 23, 2020
Most important shelves in my house. #ShowUsYourShelves pic.twitter.com/M0BhqlhDeQ
— Paul Gaskell (@pmgaskell) March 23, 2020
And whilst an immaculately curated bookshelf may be (extremely) enticing…
Lovely! I’m a rainbow girl myself #ShowUsYourShelves pic.twitter.com/QFxScYOmrr
— Amanda Graham (@AGComedy) March 23, 2020
…I think we can all agree that the best possible kind of bookshelf is one with the maximum possible space for more books!
#showusyourshelves my newly built bookcases….erm….I’m gonna need more books I think 😳😬 pic.twitter.com/lRBMIte7M4
— Me, a book, and a brew. (@meabookandabrew) March 23, 2020