Is Richard Osman A Psychopath?

[@LeonEvans_Guyver1]

"well that's a war crime!" 😂😂😂😂❤

[@zowkey]

Cue Thunbnail change :-/

[@sarasate89]

I absolutely organise my books by height. It looks neater that way, but also in the past I bought flat packed bookcases that would always have one shelf that wasn't as tall as the others, forcing me to only put paperbacks on that shelf. So it was just natural to organise them all by height

[@jamiesmith8220]

Love hearing Lateral getting the recognition it deserves. Love the podcast :)

[@nicemandan]

I'm surprised he hasn't been snaffled by the Beeb, although he's done a great job ploughing his own furrow, so good luck to him.

[@harryhill8543]

I have a PhD on the topic of psychopathy and can confirm method of book arrangement is not one of the cardinal traits. What it does highlight though is his preference for finding things based on visual appearance as opposed to hers which is concept based. The former being better if you aren't sure where something is, while the latter relying on memory. The latter however is also more likely to lead to disputes when other people who want to find the same book, do not share the same rule of thumb when it comes to what category books should be. Especially when they could fit multiple catagories. I didnt hear any domestic rumblings related to Richards "is it big or is it small" system?

[@DoctorWossname]

I'm reminded of The Two Ronnies confusing library sketch - "all the red books are over here, all the green books are over there..."

[@richardstreet7605]

I’m with Richard on the book height thing. It makes practical sense to group books together as it allows you to maximise the number of shelves. I assume Marinas approach only works for posh people with huge houses or poor people who don’t like books.

[@amyvanzyl3016]

I've been listening to this on Spotify and just came here to comment.... funniest argument ever!! It's a war crime 😂😂

[@gilessmith-x1y]

Richard just actively trolling Marina on the books - brilliant

[@Battleturds]

I order my books exactly the same way Richard does. Marina's husband's method sounds utterly mental.

[@sarasate89]

I don't think he was, it makes perfect sense and I also organise my books by height! It looks much neater

[@tonythesuperperson]

My books are entirely organised by where I felt like putting them

[@AnneAslaug]

That means you don't have enough of them.

[@tonythesuperperson]

@ oh god I have so, so many

[@AnneAslaug]

@@tonythesuperperson Good for you! 😃

[@250157andyw]

Ah ... so this IS actually the room for an argument!! Great to hear you having a little disagreement and on such a key philosophical topic as organising bookshelves :) It's a classic multi-level issue posing as a dichotomy - I have mine primarily by size so I can fix the shelf positions and then also by topic - or the other way around if you like. It's a BOTH kind of issue. I am really not a podcast kind of person but you two have got me hooked with The Rest is Entertainment. Keep up the good work.

[@BF-up5xw]

Finally, sanity prevails! Shelf height and topics.

[@TheCameronWatson]

The Tom Scott shout out was unexpected but so happy it was! Lateral is excellent!

[@daviebananas1735]

Is this meant to be read in a Yoda voice?

[@gromcom]

Tom Scott is a national treasure

[@LindaWebb-p8s]

I love your discussion on displaying books. I've talked about this loads as a home styler. The one style I can't get my head around is when people rotate their books so that the spine isn't on display. Hence all you can see is the cream pages, people often use it for their zoom backgrounds... absolutely crazy!

[@costeris35]

I will then assume they are all untold selfpublished effords😂

[@grahamparker8836]

Judging by zoom calls I’ve seen on TV most people’s book shelves are a random mess with no thought given to even tidiness!

[@grahammcowan4430]

I have so many biographies I've been considering dividing them into male and female sections. With one exception. I'll put the biographies of Warren Beatty with the women. It's what he'd want.

[@costeris35]

I concur. Biographies are tricky. I have always felt a bit bad for the books who have to sit next to the Kershaw book on Hitler.

[@Chris-c7i8d]

Size definitely comes into it because you have to put all the really big books on a shelf with a lot of height above, and so on down the shelf gap heights. I think the thing that really divides people tho is whether they have all the spines pulled to near the front of the shelf so as to present a flat wall of books, or if they push them all to the back.

[@ysgol3]

Agreed - I'm a flat waller and find back pushers both absurd and contemptible. The point of deep bookshelves is to disguise irritating book depth variations behind the flat wall of ostensible tranquil consistency.

[@rusty911s2]

In the end I employed a book aesthetic consultant as I just couldn't seem to come up with a system that worked. Pleased to say that in under a week, it's all sorted. She put both books next to each other.

[@visualthinking]

I simply must have her contact information.

[@TheBarnsleyBill]

Best show yet. “That’s a war crime”. Snorted. Perfect moment

[@snakeinthegarden1146]

I will also mention this is natural human brain thinking. We all organise differently. There is an amazing video game called "unpacking" where you follow a woman through her life as she moves house and the QA testing was quite difficult they said. To some people kettles should be in cupboard, to others, on the cooker. Some people put shoes by front door, some in wardrobes. Its all cultural norms and bias. Book organising solutions like games like "A little to the Left" show you there are multiple ways to do everything. Unpacking is on mobile now, very strong recommendation for this indie darling

[@phueal]

I'm both: books are grouped into sections (so all media ones would be together, like Marina), but then loosely by size within sections. Also relevant that some of my shelves are different heights, so sometimes have to put small books together on a small shelf!

[@Elwaves2925]

I don't have many books on display these days but when I did there were two sections or sets of shelving. One was for indivdual books (or two) and they were sorted alphaetically by author name. The second was for multiple books by the same author, where all their works were together, usually in release order. So all of Tolkien's were together, Stephen King's were together and so on. I only really had fictional paperbacks, so other types weren't an issue.

[@opmtube898]

Wonderful autumnal colour coordination Marina, really suits you ❤

[@TommyDaniels-zt8zy]

Am I the only one who had to Google Glenn Powell and Sydney Sweeney? I must be getting old.

[@sharonco6379]

No you are not and even after googling them I didn't recognise their photos

[@sh8736]

No idea who they are in fact they quite often mention folk I’ve never heard of….

[@Elitist20]

I knew about Sydney Sweeney ('for two reasons...fnar, fnar!') but hadn't remembered he was her co-star in Anyone but You.

[@Wooderz245]

There are incredibly few books that I have read more than once. Once a book goes on the shelf, it is officially an ornament. I'm with Richard on that one, you arrange them in a way that looks nice, alphabetical order is ridiculous. My son organises his books by piling them up on his bedroom floor next to his bookshelf.

[@daviebananas1735]

I’ve never read a book more than once. The very idea seems insane to me.

[@TommyDaniels-zt8zy]

Yes. I read voraciously in my 20's, and I always thought I'd have plenty of time to take the books off the shelf again some day and read them again. Now, in my early 50's, I realise that I don't have enough time left to read those books again and it saddens me. Tempus fugit and all that.

[@Walperion_Music]

@@daviebananas1735 Yes! Who has the time when there's so much money to be earned!

[@daviebananas1735]

@@Walperion_Music No, I just mean that once I’ve read a book, I have zero interest in reading the same book again. The magic is gone after you’ve read it. It would seem like a chore, knowing exactly what was going to happen.

[@PaulHaigh072]

I’m imagining my Italian in laws screaming at the pronunciation of Giorgio de Chirico. Glad it’s not just me :)

[@hotjavacool]

I ground my teeth ;)

[@benjamindavies4960]

"Believe me, I will be looking at them like Robocop when I come round. 100%!" That made me giggle!

[@misha-jz4yx]

arrange books by size - regular + matching and colour, not in batches, but mixed in pleasing variegated patches, then finalise by eclecticity to externalise my specialness. i sound like such a knob, but the books don't lie. laughed so much at your conversation :)

[@mikew6840]

Richard: “It’s surprising how rarely jokes coincide, but they do coincide a lot…”😂

[@chrisphillips2467]

It's just more efficient to group books by sizes. You can often get a whole extra shelf in your Oak effect Billy Bookcase if you're smart about it.

[@Nabend1402]

Now I want to hear Richard and Marina as guests on Lateral! Surely everyone involved would be up for that!?!

[@davidabaxter]

I’ve never seen either of them quite so animated as with their discussion on organising books😂

[@benthomas1885]

Anyone who can comfortably sit in their living room whilst the windows are being cleaned is probably a psychopath.

[@damarcuscolfer1485]

I turn my chair to watch them and sip my drink. I've paid for this service after all. Might as well observe.

[@TheMegaMusicProject]

Richard Osman at 15:20 "Big books, I like". There's a song in that.

[@asoiseth]

Oh my god I’m laughing SO hard, Winston Churchill!!!!! Headache! Like tennis!!! Like Robocop!

[@maxdorey6713]

Five spots of "by and large" this week

[@emcutts2575]

this made me laugh, i read it as soon as it was said

[@GreenEggsNz]

Marina, I’ve read your stories and seen your byline for years. Richard, you are a very funny man, in every sense. Great show

[@GreenEggsNz]

Marina I mean I’ve found your articles and stories in the Guardian, insightful and very well communicated. Richard your stuff on Wilty brilliant.

[@davethedroid]

I'm with Richard on organising books

[@sorscha1308]

Me too. I like mine symetrical. My hardback shelf has the tallest on the ends and goes down in size towards the middle. Another shelf is full of paperbacks that are different sizes, so they follow the same pattern and another shelf, they're all the same size-ish. My other book shelves, they're all just crammed wherever they'll fit. I know where everything is and that's all that matters but the 3 shelves facing you as you walk into my living room are pretty too - which is nice.

[@Eurobin]

Yeah, me too.

[@Cyanopis]

I just turned round to look at my mini library because i wasnt sure how i did it, and lo and behold its according to size! its also done that way because i have in areas fit books ontop of other books because it fits easier and still looks tidy.

[@joshuataylor3550]

Honestly who gives a fuck

[@andreasrensen6465]

And me!

[@billswifejo]

I have always ordered things alphabetically by author or artist. Books, vinyl, DVDs ,CDs etc. within each section books are chronological and tipped forward if I haven’t read them yet. It drives me mad that I can’t organise my Kindle and Audible books the same way.

[@NickKean]

Richard missed a real trick not responding to Brooklyn Beckham's book or "The World's 100 Most Important Infinity Pools" with "I preferred the audiobook version".

[@jennyroberts2347]

War crime😂 I had my books sorted by height.

[@AlanHamilton-j5i]

Marina got the introduction correct. It took a long time for Richard to get her polished.

[@mccorrisken]

What beautiful work and great vibes on the behind the scenes.

[@TravelingBibliophile]

I am team Marina. Mine are separated into two separate libraries, one upstairs & one downstairs because I have a ton of books. However, they are both arranged library style: genres all together (arts, performing arts etc. together. Then all of my History books together based on countries/ timeline etc. Europe, then country, then era era e.g. WW II together, US history together. My fiction is grouped by authors last names, the only other divide is by age level (my childhood books are together, and then my adult books are in another group but together. ). I also have all my series books [Poirot, TMC, Harry Potter, Nero Wolfe, The Babysitters Club etc.] put together by order of original publication date).

[@costeris35]

Mine too. It does annoy me that books in series like Pratchett and Harry Potter are not the same size/edition but I live with it. There are some books that kind of drift between the categories though, that essay bundle by a poet, does it go with his poems or with the essay bundles, which is really just that big Montaigne collection, and a small Hazlitt one. Ah these questions 😂.

[@shada_nox]

Just catching up with this one. Now I have to reorganise my bookshelves. Thanks for that!

[@travelwell6049]

17:12 I just loved Richard getting so passionate about it given that normally he’s so moderated and non-confrontational. But I agree that a very small book could get lost next to something far bigger. I also display mine with size in mind. I used to be a visual merchandiser so my choice is based very much by how they look rather than the ability to find.

[@Walperion_Music]

My bookshelves are arranged in two categories: "Richard Osman's Books" and "The Rest". The latter is empty yet.

[@ivorykate49]

Best way to arrange books:- Height first, then genre, then author and then co-ordinate the colours so that they are aesthetically pleasing-perfect

[@blackbirdmoon9188]

Marina is such a refreshing presence. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed ‘discovering’ her in ‘real life’ on this podcast, having enjoyed her writing in the Guardian previously. Marina was great on the US election coverage too.

[@MK-rt2gm]

Thank God we all look at things differently.

[@robfaulkner7016]

I am a physical media person and have differing ways of organising depending on the media. Music is separated into vinyl or CD and then ordered alphabetically then chronologically, as is Music DVD & Blu-ray. Films are organised into either Blu-ray or DVD and then on film title. Books are arranged in whatever space they occupy, so large hardback "nice" books are put in a prominent shelf where as paperbacks can be stored where they fit.

[@longjonwhite]

Heard a good story years ago regarding a journalist on the NME. He had followed Elton John’s tour about the country and couldn’t be bothered to attend the final gig which he was to write about. So he made it up and filed his story. Unfortunately, he made no mention of the surprise guest visit by Paul McCartney, which got headlines in all other publications!

[@chevalierdupapillon]

Totally with Richard on the arranging of books. I have thematic sections, but within these sections there are subsections for different sizes. Once you have a sufficient number of books in each section, you can not just easily sort them into size-based sections - but you might also really have to, because the more there are, the greater the risk would otherwise be of a tiny paperback being placed between a giant brick of a reference book and a thin but incredibly 'tall' book. Furthermore, if you divide sections into groupings by size, you can also make better use of the different parts which many shelves have, i.e. the low-ceiling ones which can only house 'short' paperbacks or the large ones which would be wasted on short books - or even actively arrange shelve floorboards in that way. Finally, I also arrange books by colour within subsections because it is very pleasing to the eye, especially in larger shelves. In order to still be able to find things it is of course desirable (but also, in my experience, fairly easy) to arrive at a good compromise between making thematic sections relatively large (making it harder to find things in this necessarily non-alphabetic arrangement, but containing enough books to provide several in each colour & size) and relatively small (where advantages & disadvantages are of course the opposite of the former). The better you are at remembering the colour of individual books, the more you can go for large sections.

[@Februarlig]

At the danish royal library the books are sorted by size and placed on different floors randomly. BUT they all get a number on the spine, so it is possible to find again, and there isn't access for the public, so it works fine ;)

[@des111113]

Classic divide between people who want/need a working library, and people who can take a little more time to find things for the sake of aesthetics (number of books involved also a big factor of course)

[@TheClazabaza]

I never forget what the spine of a book looks like so my books are arranged by size - I'm with Richard 100%. I have an MA in Eng Lit and to this day cannot find books in a library...I feel liberated having finally confessed to this.

[@manusan80]

To the person who pointed out Richard's frequent use of "by and large" on another video: Damn you!!! 😂 Now it really sticks out and gets to me. So, to share the suffering and lighten the burden, may you, from now on join me in my plight 😋 Greetings from Germany

[@visualthinking]

Books sorted by topic, then by height. Tall books are vertical, smaller books are stacked horizontal to make the most of the space. Pulling books out of the horizontal stacks doesn't happen enough to be a pain. But I am a library gal, so there is a shelf in the entryway for those coming and going.

[@rolyons]

My bookcases are arranged by topic and period. Not quite the Dewey Decimal system but that sort of thing. Helps with my increasingly bad memory😅

[@JonathanB6023]

I'm totally with Richard on organising books by height (not thickness). It's much more relaxing and pleasing to see a shelf of books of similar height, and helps immensely when scanning the titles because they're all at similar height. Besides, it naturally groups certain genres of book, such as all art books are large and all fiction books are relatively small, whether hard or paperback.

[@greenhorngamer9148]

Yep, with Richard. By book size, author and theme. An author often has same publisher so book size doesn’t ruin sorting by author.

[@silverbaker2194]

I am even hunting down vintage editions of Terry Pratchett's books to replace the larger format books that I have been given as gifts, so it can all fit on the same shelf.

[@joeynessily]

Pantone Colour Chart of a book spines... coming to Esty any minute.

[@tracysavage5189]

Definitely with Richard on how his books are organised, that’s the way I do it…am I a psychopath 😮😅

[@ianmedium]

It's so funny about the colour matching books. I watched here recently here and interview of Amy Sedaris and her New York apartment and she colour matches her books!

[@5LevelsOfRebirth]

Of course we organise our books by size in order to make the most of the available space. It''s not just height that's important but width, too, so you can have two straight rows on the same shelf, one in front, one behind. Sometimes you want the front row to be lower so you can see what's behind and sometimes you absolutely need to hide those in the rear.

[@yairmiller4834]

I started listening to "The Rest Is History" after you talked about it, and I started playing find multiple books on Dominic Sandbrook shelf as he have more then 1 book 4 times (I try to do it without stopping the video)

[@leonardfairground5937]

Not just height, but width as well; they have to fit within the limited space on the shelves. I didn’t realise I was a war criminal. 😂

[@dannyquinn9128]

Get to the Hague before you get a knock on the door.

[@lucyj8204]

The trouble with colour coding your library is that if you have multiple editions of something they might end up on different shelves. Impossible.

[@wjohndavidson]

Fiction is by author , and within author by date of publication. Hardbacks are on different bookcases from softcovers just because it's practical. Nonfiction also by author within subject but they are mostly history. Cookbooks are next to the kitchen and organised by cuisine. Outsized books (Atlases and such) are on a special shelf.. We have over 2500 books. catalogued on Goodreads so that we can keep track and reduce the risk of buying duplicates.

[@andymartin6471]

I could live without the idea, that anything on Sky is just "bloody brilliant.''

[@TommyDaniels-zt8zy]

That Sky bit always gets 1.75 playback speed from me.

[@andremp03]

Bills gotta be paid I guess haha

[@AlanHamilton-j5i]

Richard; 'Where does he keep his books.' Marina: 'What books?' Marina is a delightful snob( in a blue-stocking way)

[@OXmraz]

Oh I love this discussion about books. I needed it today! I’m on team Marina!!! ❤❤

[@GlennPegden]

Big love to Lateral (and everything Tom Scott does)

[@pegghead5598]

Really nailing the intro these days Marina!! ❤❤

[@stixdan]

I thought that was going to be the end of the podcast over the book organising discussion 😂

[@mikesommers1068]

Sorry Marina, I worked in a library for my gap year, and so ever since I've put fiction A-Z, but the top 4 or 5 shelves are Octavo, and the bottom 2 are Quarto-- in one house I even had a Folio shelf at the bottom! So I'm afraid size does matter-- not least because you can squeeze more books per linear foot of shelving if you do it that way.

[@savyjett]

I do love an assortment of coffee table books.

[@SimonHeartfield]

Shelving books by size isn't as mad as it sounds. I worked in a college library which had an oversize section. Still in Dewey order though

[@slartybartfast4213]

There's a point at about 16:40 you can see Marina is thinking 'Yep, Richard is a 6ft 7 Patrick Bateman'

[@SlowMotionAtomicBomb]

From the best gameshow podcast (sort of), "don't look at your bookshelves, don't look at your books."

[@andrew66862]

Great gameshow, when you think about it

[@duggie1982]

REGULATED - IM JUST GOING TO LEAVE IT THERE - THATS A LOT TO UNPACK 😂😂😂 Took Richard about 15 minutes before he exploded lol

[@Guestimators]

💌 Thanks for the shoutout Richard!

[@Fazzinchi]

Looking forward to a special edition of "The Rest Is... Shelfies", where photos of viewers bookshelves are assessed and rated on a scale of 1-10 based on how much of a sociopath the contributor is deemed to be.

[@markhopkins318]

At one point I had all my hard copy media in biographical order. so books, CDs, DVDs, and games mixed on the shelves in the order I had bought them.

[@Paula-Trudy]

Oh no I’ve just bought new bookshelves for a specific place to get all my books in one place and now I don’t know how to organise them 😂

[@savyjett]

I’m with marina on book ordering. 😂

[@savyjett]

I don’t know about you, but I have the privilege of being able to move my eyeballs independently of my head. 😂😂

[@Jonathan_Corwin]

The big hardback books go on the big shelf, normally at the bottom. It is a bit annoying when there is a series of books where the majority are paperback but one is the hardback version

[@ShatnersBassoon]

Giorgio de Chirico - great taste Marina

[@shinetilly]

I agree with Richard! My bookshelf is done by size and then by collections/genre. I have some that are large so the don’t fit on a standard shelf standing up. So the larger books are together on a shelf that is set larger to accommodate them. Then my shorter books like hardbacks and paperbacks are on a shorter shelf. Tallest books to the left and shorter books to the right.

[@LayP]

I organize my books by size too, Richard.. ❤

[@colingerard7863]

RGB (Red Green Blue) is the industry standard and we can all sleep safely in our beds at night with this knowledge. However, the colour of the spines on Richard's first three books if put next to each other in the sequence they were written is RBG (Red Blue Green). I am struggling to write any thing about the publishers, that is not libelous, for their failure to take this into account when deciding the colour of the spines of Richard's books that we, the customers, put on our shelves.

[@neildoyle1737]

Absolutely by size, I’m not a public library!

[@ajfrostx]

Who is the Twitter comedian Richard mentions at 25:42 ? I can't figure out the @ handle...

[@vengermanu9375]

Love the section on how to order your books (and I thought my wife was OCD) although I disagree with Richard's "Robocop" left to right head movement showing how he would view the books on his book shelf as this would imply they are all the same height ... unless he has different shelves for different heights 🤔

[@thisnthat42]

I read novels on my Kindle so my bookshelf is mainly non-fiction and the sizing for that is all over the place. When I was a kid I organised from largest on the left to smallest on the right. Now there’s more non-fiction in the mix I organise by category first, then within that size going from largest on the left to smallest on the right. However within that category if the height allows I put similar colours together so say there are two books of the same size in a category and one is dark blue and one light blue I might put the dark blue one on the left of the light blue book depending on how dark the previous colour is. Oh and I bring all the spines to the front edge of the shelf. It does mean that the shelves look more like a slowly descending sound wave but I wanted to find a balance between visual harmony and the logic of having similar topics together.

[@suzygeysen1628]

I too organise my books by hight, but I also sort by colour. I have some stacked on top of each other, others standing next to each other. So in one stack of red(ish) covers you'll find a James Meek book under Elisabeth Gaskell and Jane Austen and a book about how to deal with stress 😊 The 'darker' covers however are all crime related...

[@grahammcowan4430]

I forget the name of the politician but he was being interviewed on TV and on the shelf behind him was the autobiography of Ann-Margret. Didn't expect that.

[@16motglb]

Please can we have a special episode of Marina taking back control and just reorganising her books

[@Akrane1138]

Books are to be organised alphabetically, theme, or in chronological/reading order if in a series. Size is just... wrong.

[@dannyquinn9128]

Thank you. Finally some sanity. The amount of war criminals in this comment section is astounding.

[@damarcuscolfer1485]

I just place books how it feels right? Like I have a shelf in the toilet where I keep some books for perusing, also I just think it looks nice and I just placed them so it gives me a satisfied feeling. Lol. I feel so comparatively whimsical. Also I didn't know Richard was a comic?

[@keithpanton]

He's not a stand up but he is very funny, and has been excellent on panel shows and on Taskmaster. His skill with words really comes through on 'the unbelievable truth'.

[@steveb1972]

16:16 FIGHT!!!!!!!!!😬😬😬😬

[@Drucius]

It's like the Complete Don Martin next to Viz Top Tips. Madness.

[@ianandrews9122]

On a show a while ago, Richard talked about his appearance on The Wheel. He said something extraordinary happened and he would tell all when the show aired. The show aired last Saturday and no mention of it, or was it only for Club members?