One of the things that I do when I am in someone's house is look at their book shelves. Books interest me. In fact books interest most people that I know.
I was recently reminded of an incident about 40 years ago when I was living a few doors away from one of my colleagues. We were both new to the Isle of Lewis and were both from the North West of England. Our families had become friendly. We often shared a car into work.
One day I was in the friend's house waiting for him to get ready (I am compulsive about being on time. He wasn't). I started looking at the books on his bookshelves. When he came into the room I said (and I have absolutely no idea why I said) "I hope you don't mind me looking at your books." To which he responded that he most certainly did. Of course I thought he was joking. He was not. He went on to opine that it was a violation of someone's privacy because you could tell too much about a person from their bookshelves.
I suppose that he was correct but I certainly hadn't seen that coming.
Would you object if I was looking at your bookshelves and do you think I would learn a lot?
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