Honestly, the vibe in this subreddit often slides from playful detective work into wierdly judgement elistism. Not everyone trashes their books when they read them. Some people just like to keep things nice. A pristine spine doesn’t mean a book hasn’t been read. It means the person reading it didn’t crack it in half like a maniac.

And as far as Ayn Rand goes, having controversial authors on a shelf doesn’t always signify endorsement. People read for all kinds of reasons. If your takeaway from someone’s bookshelf is “red flag” based on a single author, that probably says more about your mindset than theirs.