Backwards bookshelves: Impractical trend for stacking books with spines to the wall divides internet

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

There are many ways to arrange books on your shelves, from grouping them by colour, stacking by subject or even in alphabetical order.

But, while any of these methods proves useful for, you know, knowing what books you have, a new trend for lining the shelf with the spines facing in is making waves online.

Taking to Twitter, Comedian Pete Otway shared an image of a photo from interiors magazine Ideal Home whereby a shelf was neatly stacked with books.

But, instead of the spines facing outwards, they were all back-to-front. An accompanying headline reads, “Lauren keeps the look neutral by stacking books back to front.”

Alongside the photo, which has since been likes more than 84,000 times and received 19,000 retweets, Otway posted, “Well Lauren’s a blithering idiot then, isn’t she?”

It didn’t take long for other Twitter users to join in and mock the interiors tip, criticising it as “daft” and “wrong.”

“Books are not props created to set a color scheme,” one person said.

“I don't have enough shelf space for the books I read, much less to 'create a look.”

Another added, “What is wrong with Lauren? Has she lost her mind?”

But while the trend has received its fair share of insults, other literary lovers insist that it’s a great way to store your book collection.

“My ocd is like ‘oh color matching’”, another person tweeted.

A fan of creating a calming colour scheme using books, one interior designer supports the trend by regularly posting pictures of her own shelves on Instagram.

“My book collection is huge so it was important to me from a design standpoint to find a creative way to store my accumulation,” she told TODAY.

“I have read thousands of books. I’ve only reread about 20, so I don’t find it necessary to be able to find a specific title that I’ve already read at the drop of a hat.

“I love the sculptural effect you get by facing the pages out.”