And now I am really in shock

I've gotten used to quite a bit by now. I know women who hire someone to light the candles when they arrive at their vacation villa, I've read about celebrities who hire the best florist to sprinkle flower petals around their designer bags (and do that every day), and I've also been to a VIP's home who had the outlines of books in her shelf instead of actual books. You could see the spines of the books, but the top was just wood. It dusted off so easily and she didn't read anyway.

In LA, everything is taken to the extreme (except for drinking wine), so I shouldn't be surprised at all, but I am. What am I saying? I'm in shock. Especially because it concerns Gwyneth Paltrow, someone I expected to have some style and taste of her own. I was wrong about that. When she bought a new house in LA, she hired a book curator. That's someone who assembles a book collection for you.

I love to peek into someone's bookshelf. Give me your bookcase and I'll tell you who you are, that kind of thing. Books you've received, bought during that trip, read when you were down and out or read on this and that vacation. It's a collection of memories. Sentences that moved you, books that made you cry. But a curated collection, assembled by someone else who thinks this book palette suits you?

And the worst part is that the curator, from the company Thatcher Wine (I also found that a peculiar name), had to adhere to a color code of white, gray, and black shades.

I suddenly think of my old father-in-law whom we moved this week. With my nephew, I unpacked his books and placed them in the Billy shelves we had just cleared out. The collected works of Kafka, Nietzsche, Chinese philosophers, and so on. One of the two movers took a breather on the edge of the couch and I saw his eyes scanning the shelves. “Yes,” I said quite proudly, “my father-in-law is a learned man.” The mover nodded respectfully: “I can see that. I can see that.”

Look, Gwyneth, you might be able to buy a bookshelf, but to really impress, you have to earn it.