It’s less about spending one’s own money which people are entitled to but more about why would someone buy “a library” and show it as a backdrop during ZOOM calls just to give themselves an erudite image? Isn’ t that rather a thing of the past than a desirable image today?
No doubt, people seem to carefully select the backdrop. Impressive bookshelves are indeed the preferred background during those calls, and for lack of it, to be followed by stately fireplaces. You hardly see anything else.
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Not to mention his campaign poster poking up from behind the books, just in case he forgets who he is.
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Yeah, it really is staged, isn’t it? I bet he turned the camera on before the interview and checked everything was positioned just right!
They all do it, though, we have a laugh background spotting
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To be fair to her though, ( and I don’t really want to be🤣) Adele is very generous supporting charities. Including SANDS which is a cause very dear to me because of a tragic thing that happened to one of my son’s friends
Plus I’m all for people who can afford it buying real hard copy books from independent book shops
She could have picked somewhere a bit less trendy than Daunt though
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Strange how Shapps is didn’t have copies in the background of the Private Eye’s regular articles about how he’s making a right old cock up of things.
I’m not sure what the issue is here - is it an issue?
I can’t pretend to be a fan of Adele because I don’t like listening to her songs but I can’t see why spending £1,000 on books in a bookshop is something to criticise her for.
It’s hardly a crime to buy a load of books without looking through them first - as an earlier post mentioned, rich people throughout history have furnished their libraries with books that were bought as “job lots” to fill their library shelves.
If they hadn’t, the majority of our National Trust stately homes would not have such an eclectic range of books on display now.
I guess folk can look for the negative aspects of it and criticise Adele for wanting the books as a prop, maybe to project an image - but isn’t that what the entertainment business is all about?
Whether it’s films, TV or singers making video clips to release as a backdrop to their songs, none of it’s real, it’s all about entertainment.
If the Zoom interviews she is doing are part of her job, why should she not create her own “studio backdrop” ?
If I had to do zoom interviews with strangers, I wouldn’t want to share my private and personal space with people I didn’t know - I’d probably set aside a space in my home for video calls and try to create a backdrop with no personal stuff in view.
Anyway, I am loth to criticise any rich person for spending their money on anything that is legal and doesn’t harm anyone else.
Spending money they don’t really need on things they don’t really need is better than being a skinflint and squirrelling it all away - at least it gets it back into the economy and supports businesses and jobs.
I remember the media trying to criticise Elton John for regularly spending lots of money on buying flowers for his home - I couldn’t understand why anyone would take a negative view of someone buying flowers, it was putting his money back into the economy and keeping the florists in a job.
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To be fair, it’s all of ‘em!
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Yes, it is something of a non-event, isn’t it?
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Spot on @Boot. That’s always my justification for spending money - it keeps the economy going, and keeps people in work 
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I don’t think it’s a big deal, really, celebs doing what they do
My only niggle is someone pretending to be what they’re not. If she’s not a reader and doesn’t really own tons of books, why fake it?
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It’s not so much an issue for me as a passing comment on the “star” that is Adele … 
“You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”
I saw that too and thought what a great bit of free advertising for Portillo. 
As for filling bookshelves, wasn’t this a product of all those working from home Zoom/Skype meetings where peeps were trying to impress their colleagues and bosses? I could show you the same if I wanted too. The bookshelf behind me is chock-full of unread paperbacks but only because we haven’t got round to reading them yet. Once we have then off they jolly well pop to our local hospice shop.
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I appreciate Adele as a musician. What she does with her money is mine of my business. I don’t personal care nor does it make any difference how I feel about her.
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Off topic but Grant Shapps makes me feel queasy … man cave shed culture, that open red briefcase, yikes, trainspotting and flags.
Love the new counterculture.
Adele could get record company execs round in a flash to advise on home video backdrops. But she goes for that cheap vid cam washed-out look and erudite bookyshelfy. Ha
… was his Ministerial box of papers to be worked on if he hadn’t already done so.