Yep, me too.

I'd have to ask: which shelf? In which bookcase? In which (of the three) offices/studios or house?

But yeah, I'm with djmont (and for the same reason) -- they'd think I have entirely too many books.

Dude, same exact thing with me - except for one difference - in addition to the above, I have a healthy collection of hard-cover comic books, or "graphic novels" - that's where I do most of my fiction reading. Every other book I buy is non-fiction, history, politics, quantum physics, religion, anthropology, etc.. The only fiction novels I own are a couple King books, some classics from people like Steinbeck, Dostoevsky and modern-day writers like Ellroy and Pinchon. Otherwise, non-comics fiction doesn't really interest me.

So I guess I would come off as rather geeky...

I once had a girl whom I'd just met come up to my room. (Before you get any ideas, I was tutoring her.) She looked around and said, "Wow...you must know everything!" Of course, she wasn't very bright.

Most people would probably think one of these:

"This guy likes old books."
"This guy's deep; he likes poetry."
"This guy's creepy; he's into military history."
"This guy's sweet; he likes Austen."
"This guy's stupid; he likes Stephen King."
"This guy's a fascist; he reads Machiavelli."
"WTF is going on here?"

"This guy loves fantasy, but only the good ones. No trash on his shelf (like Terry Goodkind"

You may already be aware, but check out CIA's Studies in Intelligence issues. Each issue has good reviews on books dealing with intelligence, history, and current politics. I'm sure you'll find some intriguing items. Not to mention great articles of their own.

As for my bookshelf, let's take a lot at the general types of books I have and see what we can come up with:
1. Classic literature, heavy in romantic and victorian literature (exp Madame Bovary, Sentimental Education, Love, & The Black Tulip)
2. A large section on the Desert Fathers, ascetics, and christian theology from the greats (St Augustine, Origen, Cassian, etc)
3. Historical books; mostly on the American Revolution, and great historical figures such as Alexander, T.E. Lawrence, Lord Nelson

From this, one may very well deduce that I'm a effeminate pious historian.

They would think that I am a foodie (cookbooks) and a science geek (lots of chemistry textbooks, robot anime). For my nonfiction, I'm not sure if there's a theme that ties them all together.

They would think I don't read much...and that what I do read makes me a geek or horror nut. That's because I tend to get rid of books once I've read them and get stuff from the library, and the only ones I hold onto are horror and comic-centric books. The higher brow stuff I read (which isn't all that high, believe me) I tend to get from the library

I assume you have The Professor and the Madman. If you do not, go get it this week.

I do not have it. I borrowed it a few years ago. Good book.

How about The Meaning of Everything? It's the story of the entire OED not just the two main characters, they are both by Simon Winchester.

Nope, I haven't read that.

The Meaning of Everything

Goes hand in hand with The Professor and the Madman but it concentrates more in the making of the dictionary rather than two of the main characters. It's pretty impressive, it took them 70+ years to read thousands of books, collect all the words, define them and use them in a sentence for every English word ever written.

Sounds very cool. I'll have to check it out.

Thanks, wasn't aware of it. Most of the material I read is from the National Security Archive

As someone who was in the book business for 12 years I always look at people's bookshelves if they're out on display. I'm not being judgmental I just have a genuine interest in what other people are reading and especially what they've read that they enjoyed so much that they kept the book.

As for me, the shelves on the main floor are mostly history and film related while the bulk of the fiction is up in the bedroom. I get the occasional snide comment about the number of books but an awful lot of people enjoy looking them over. They're right by the bar so they're a good conversation starter at parties.