Virtue Signalling

Small house, limited choice of Zoom backgrounds, therefore kitchen, not tidy.

But perhaps I'm virtue signalling that I am above such things as bookcases

Zoejory

GagaJo

eazybee

People who have walls / huge bookshelves full of books but never read. A class signifier.

This sort of silly remark.
People who have walls full of books buy them because they like books and they keep them on shelves because it as an ideal way to store them.
Nothing to do with class.

You missed out totally the 2nd part of my post.

but never read

Just insulation. I don't keep millions of books and I'm an English teacher.

How on earth do you know they've not been read?

Don't say you can tell, because you can't.

I'm thinking of one 'friend' in particular, although she isn't alone. She never reads. Her husband doesn't. None of their children did/do. But wall of books. As I said. Class signifier for someone trying too hard to be middle class.

It'd be like me having ExperiencedNotOld's example of extensive kitchen equipment. I never cook. Why have it?

My precious books (mainly charity shop finds), are still carefully stacked in supermarket carriers a year after moving house. Just can’t find the right bookshelf yet.
Aside from books there are those who “signal” with “you’ve- missed-the best part-of-the-day” etc etc and who all but repainted the Sistine Chapel before breakfast. But they go to bed at 7:20 pm because they are then knackered 😴

ExperiencedNotOld

Is not talking up your possession and use of books not a signalling of virtue?

No

an attempt to show other people that you are a good person, for example by expressing opinions that will be acceptable to them, especially on social media
Virtue signalling is the popular modern habit of indicating that one has virtue merely by expressing disgust or favour for certain political ideas or cultural happenings

Cambridge dictionary definition of virtue signalling.

Bookcases can't be examples of virtue signalling.

Is not talking up your possession and use of books not a signalling of virtue?

Virtue signalling is very much in the eyes of the beholder.

Good deeds and charitable giving, often mentioned by some. The best charity and kindness are unspoken.

I do mention donating downsized goods to cs, I am getting rid but subconsciously don`t want people to think I am just binning for landfill, anyway it stops me feeling guilty in the hope that someone can re-use.

I confess, on zoom I have a bank of books and reports and offprints behind me, very difficult to read any titles.

DH and I have a double sided partners desk. When choosing which side to be on, I got the books, side; he got the fireplace, which is full of deep shelves with document boxes on it.

It's not virtue signalling at all.

GagaJo Your post has two meanings and I am not sure which you mean.

The word 'read' has 2 pronunciations and both make sense in the context you used that word. Which meaning did you mean?

I make no pretence about having a house full of books and using them. Both DH and I have interests that have led to us building up research libraries. Most books are bought secondhand. Few are novels.

If people label me as an intellectual, I do not give a toss. The word is generally used as an insult and I have been called much worse.

As to the other meanig of 'read'. I read all the time. In my childhood I was described, qute accurately, as a child who would read the back of a bus ticket. Nowadays I am never knowingly more than a few feet from a book, newspaper or magazine and have four books on the go at the moment. The one in the bathroom that i read while the bath runs (it is very slow), one by my bed, one on the living room and, of course, one on my kindle, for waits anywhere, I read it for 20 minutes in the Osteopath yesterday while DH was having treatment.

Is the above virtue signalling? I have no idea. It is how I like to lead my life.

I have an exceedingly well read friend who is also an author. She spent a whole couple of days colour coordinating all her (read!) books. It looks better in the promo photos or so her publisher told her.

I happily admit to reading chi lit, when I am down and need a comfy blanket read I revert to Jilly Cooper (I have a not so secret crush on Rupert Campbell Black)

I am not sure I am 100% au-fait with virtual signalling is it not just boasting by another name?

A friend of mine was about to post a photo on Facebook of some flowers she had been given for her birthday.

After arranging them in an antique family heirloom jug, she decided to place it in front of her bookcase but not before swapping a couple of gardening books by Alan Titchmarsh for those of Christopher Lloyd and Beth Chatto.

When I laughed she pointed out that my coffee table books are by garden designers that nobody’s ever heard of. 😂

I worked in a bank just after leaving school with a young man who looked down his nose at the rest of us and loved to tell us about which operas he enjoyed.

Turned out he was siphoning off a lot of money from dead people’s accounts before they were frozen and he ended up with a lengthy jail sentence

GagaJo

eazybee

People who have walls / huge bookshelves full of books but never read. A class signifier.

This sort of silly remark.
People who have walls full of books buy them because they like books and they keep them on shelves because it as an ideal way to store them.
Nothing to do with class.

You missed out totally the 2nd part of my post.

but never read

Just insulation. I don't keep millions of books and I'm an English teacher.

How on earth do you know they've not been read?

Don't say you can tell, because you can't.

No eazybee, I know of people that consider a wall of books more of a decorative feature than a source of knowledge. There’s even a nearby ‘emporium’ that’ll sell you a load.
My irritant - people with kitchens full of posh knives and microplane graters and the like when they eat microwave meals or takeaways.

GagaJo

My friends upbraid me for being a literature snob. My cleverest friend reads pulp fiction and tells me to 'f**k off' when I sneer. Quite right too.

I once worked with a man in an office who considered himself to be intellectual?! He told us of his trip to Foyles in London and listed all the 20th century philosophy books he had bought and was reading. Methinks he 'boasted' too much.

loopyloo

Well there's class signalling and virtue signalling.
I'm currently rereading Ulysses.

Or maybe you are really.

Well there's class signalling and virtue signalling.
I'm currently rereading Ulysses.

My friends upbraid me for being a literature snob. My cleverest friend reads pulp fiction and tells me to 'f**k off' when I sneer. Quite right too.

Mrs Sparkle, who I have mentioned before, who tells us all about her good deeds in the community which she carries out all day, everyday, in every type of weather and season.

Talking of books - listening to the The Rest is Politics podcast, Alistair Campbell upbraided Rory Stewart for saying when asked what he was reading "I'm currently re-reading War and Peace" (or something similar).

Campbell said he was always 're-reading' some great tome and it was just a way of showing off!

Thanks Riverwalk.

eazybee

^People who have walls / huge bookshelves full of books but never read. A class signifier^.

This sort of silly remark.
People who have walls full of books buy them because they like books and they keep them on shelves because it as an ideal way to store them.
Nothing to do with class.

Gaga can answer for herself but I got the impression that she could be referring to since Covid and interviewees/politicians/ commentators working from home rather than being in the TV studio you often see carefully curated bookshelves in the background!