In 2020, a pandemic forced us all to stay home and commute to work via Zoom. It opened our professional meetings to suit tops and sweatpants. It also invited people virtually into our beds and living rooms. Zoom backgrounds were occasionally fake tropical sunsets, but more often they were our real homes. And occasionally allowed our coworkers to catch a glimpse of our bookshelves.
People’s furitive glances at our book collections gave birth to the term: credibility bookcase. In other words, people’s opinions of us came to include the titles that they could see over our shoulders. Who we read says alot about us, especially in a professional setting.
Just like with anything else in work, some people faked their bookshelves—filling them with impressive tomes that they hadn’t actually read (and had no intention of). Some professions expected people to pay for thick, leather-bound books to stack up behind them. Or people pulled together their most impressive titles to showcase in their backdrop.
To be fair, bookcase comparison has been happening long before the pandemic. Anytime certain people came to our homes—from potluck dinners to bible studies—they’ve been snooping on our bookcase’s contents. They’re certainly some of the best conversation icebreakers.
There’s even a Twitter account dedicated to analyzing people’s bookcases from their Zoom backgrounds.