With everyone working from home, including the government, we’re getting a unique peak inside the homes of many public figures. Last week Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine shared some images of her bookshelf on Twitter, and it caused quite a furore.
The columnist is married to high profile UK politician Michael Gove and upon tweeting the pictures run into problems with Twitter users over some of the books on their bookshelf.
One of the books that came heavily under fire by Twitter users was The War Path by well known Holocaust denier David Irving, and other authors such as Ayn Rand, Charles A. Murrary, and Richard Herrnstein who penned a book on class structure and race called The Bell Curve.
BBC journalist Hicham Yezza posted “David Irving, the Bell Curve, Atlas Shrugged… if this had been on ‘Through the Keyhole’ I’d have guessed Anders Breivik.” In surprise at the couple’s reading taste and may other Twitter users had plenty to say too.
The row rumbled in for days, leading to the #Tweetyourmostproblematicbookcase hashtag and claims of thoughtcrime and censorship.
What do you think about the outrage? Do you think it’s justified, or do you think none of us should be judged by what is on our bookshelves. I personally love to look at people’s shelves and while I wouldn’t want to censor anyone’s reading choices, it does tell me a lot about them.
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