Success in the Background

One of the things to come out of this whole virus lockdown thing is that everyone, even the media, has had to keep their distance. For television news this has meant interviewing politicians, academics and health professionals about the virus via the Internet, where viruses have a different meaning and (so far) can’t harm humans.

When the SARS outbreak occurred in 2003 such an option wasn’t available; Skype wasn’t first released until that year and the world (and the media) was yet to widely adopt video-calling technology. But today, even with the lockdown in place, the media can access anyone and everyone – experts and victims alike – at the press of a key. So far, so qwerty.

In normal circumstances experts and politicians would be invited into a studio for interviewing, or a reporter with camera operator would visit them at their workplace, but now the new norm is for the interviewees to talk to the journos via their own laptops. This means we as viewers are treated to sneak peeks of academics’ and other experts’ homes. Instead of a pristine studio backdrop, we get to glimpse the backgrounds of their everyday domesticity, and the scenery is varied to say the least, but a lot of what we see depends on how they’ve got their laptop set up.

Typically, many of those now working from home have their screen – and therefore its built-in camera – at a slight angle on their desk or worktable. This gives a very different image to that we’re used to of interviewees. Firstly, instead of being at eye level, now most of those interviewed appear to be looking down their noses at us, and, conversely we get an excellent view of their nostril hairs. More interestingly, behind them we can see some of their office/lounge/spare room ceiling and can admire their pelmets and light fittings.

But those whose screen tilt is more upright means we can take in more of the room – the furniture, drapes, mantelpiece, and – here’s what appears to be a common denominator among experts - their bookshelves. Many if not most of the specialists and academics interviewed during the pandemic have bookshelves in the background, often fitted, and filled choc-a-bloc with tomes which, infuriatingly, it’s usually impossible to read the titles of. I keep hoping to see a copy of ‘The Joy of Sex’ on a shelf behind a university vice-chancellor, or ‘The Andromeda Strain’ on the shelf of an NHS official.

But flippancy aside, the message I’m getting from this is that books and expertise, books and knowledge, books and authority, and perhaps most importantly, books and success go together. I’m not surprised by this – I’ve always held the belief that a household with books is a household of joy – but it’s nice to see it confirmed on screen via these people’s laptops, even if it is anecdotal.

It doesn’t automatically follow that success is wholly dependent on books filling your walls – the most successful kid in my fifth form went on to become a highly respected judge but he wouldn’t have a book in his house. He said he didn’t like ‘clutter’, and his house was bare; huge, but devoid of disorder. However, a sample of one is hardly conclusive evidence, and I put it to you ladies and gentlemen of the jury that his disdain of books reflected more a personal taste for clean lines and tidiness than anything else. But I could hardly rest my case on it.

Luckily, I don’t have to do extensive research to build an argument for books in the home – that’s already been done for me by many academics, including a trio of sociologists at the University of Nevada-Reno. In 2014 they published the findings of their research after analysing test scores from 42 different nations, which categorically showed a link between books in the home and academic success. The authors noted: ‘…the number of books in the family home exerts a strong influence on academic performance in ways consistent with the cognitive skill hypothesis, regardless of the nation's ideology, political history, or level of development.’

They acknowledged that some people theorise that the mere presence of books could skew gatekeepers’ markings and opinions towards the more positive end of the scale, but in their study they go on to demonstrate that books have a higher impact in less-advantaged home situations than those that could be described as elite.

The authors – Evans, Kelley and Sikora – note: ‘The gains are not equally great across the entire cultural hierarchy. They are larger at the bottom, far below elite level. Each additional book has a greater impact on the performance of someone who only has a small home library than it does on the performance of someone from a home overflowing with books.’

Many other studies have backed up these findings, and now – bizarrely thanks to a global pandemic – we are being treated to further evidence on our screens on a nightly basis. Seeing academics’ and experts’ bookshelves in the background is not only encouraging, it speaks volumes.