Reading: Multiple choice

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Discussion
• How important are books to you?
• Where do you display your books and which do you display?
• Are you happy with where they are in your home?
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Read the article quickly and find what the author things about the question below. Do you agree?
Will the home library survive the surge of the e-book?

Now read the article about books in the home again. For questions 1-6, choose the answer (A, B, C or D)
which you think fits best according to the text.

1. In the first paragraph, the writer is

A outlining the reasons for changing priorities.
B drawing our attention to an ongoing process.
C seeking to account for a seemingly illogical attitude.
D questioning our assumptions about people’s behaviour.

2. What does the mention of political figures in the second paragraph serve to illustrate?
A The public’s curiosity about celebrity lifestyles.
B The importance of background detail in photography.
C The extent to which books tend to attract people’s attention.
D The false impression that can be gained from books on display.

3. Abigail Hall’s experience suggest that the books on show in a house for sale
A may not be as representative of the owners’ taste as people assume.
B can create an affinity between sellers and prospective buyers.
C might help buyers to assess how ken the owners are to sell.
D could mislead people into buying an unsuitable property.

4. What is implied about interior designers in the fourth paragraph?

A They regard books as little more than additional pieces of furniture.
B They are likely to underestimate the impact of the content of books.
C They sometimes show a lack of respect for the true function of books.
D They understand the effect of books on the users of spaces they create.

5. Davinia Taylor no longer wants her books because

A she has no use for them beyond their current purpose.
B she accepts that they don’t reflect her taste in reading.
C she realises she selected the titles for the wrong reasons.
D she feels they are an integral part of the house she’s selling.

6. In the final paragraph, the writer expresses

A a personal preference for books in digital format.
B optimism regarding the future of non-digital books.
C regret that the content of all books is not more valued.
D a hope that attitudes towards books will be different in the future.
Proficiency Expert SB, Unit 5A, p72-73
 Check the meaning of these key words for the text.

abound ensue speculation stack deem tangible relegate deploy odds kudos

At home with books

In an age when literature is increasingly going digital, books hold a curious role in some people’s homes.
there are few purchases which, once used, are placed on proud display and carted round as families move
from place to place. And yet that’s precisely what sometimes happens with books, despite the existence of
a digital equivalent. After all, both the music industry and other aspects of the print media have felt the heat
of virtual competition – why not books? Part of the explanation for this may lie in the fact that, when it comes
to the crunch, nosing around someone’s bookshelves is interesting. ‘You can tell a lot about someone by
their collection of books,’ says Dough Jeffers, owner of a London bookstore.

It’s not just the quantity of titles on display, however, that speaks volumes; generation, occupation, political
leanings, leisure pursuits (even where they go on holiday) – clues to all these abound, if you care to analyse
the contents of someone’s bookshelves, and even casual visitors aren’t slow to form judgements. Evidence
of this manifested itself when the President of the USA made an informal call on the English Prime Minister
at home recently, and for some reason the pair posed for photos in the kitchen. One of the snapshots was
subsequently released to the press, and widely published. There then ensued much speculation as to how
the complete works of Shakespeare had ended up on the shelf in the background rather than a cookery
book.

Household stylist Abigail Hall agrees. ‘I often style houses for sale and you’d be amazed how important the
contents of the bookcase can be.’ Apparently, people use such clues to form judgements about the type of
person who lives in a property that’s up for sale, and this may affect how they feel about going ahead with
the purchase. Perhaps we all seek out others whose tastes in such matters match our own, and we can
imagine living happily in a space that like-minded people have made homely. And even if we’re not thinking
of putting our home on the market, instinct tells us that however much they were enjoyed, paperbacks read
on the beach might be better put away in a cupboard, whilst the unopened classics are destined for display.

For the interior designer, however, the art of reputational management-via-bookshelf is not the only issue.
Books can also become an interactive display tool. ‘They can almost be sculptural in that they offer a physical
presence,’ explains Abigail Hall. ‘It’s not just about stacking them on a bookcase, it’s how you stack them.
I’ve seen books arranged by colour, stacked on top of each other. Once I saw a load of coffee-table books
piled up to become a coffee table in themselves. Books define a space, if you have some books and a comfy
chair, you’ve immediately created an area.’ It’s a trick of which countless hotels, cafés and waiting rooms
for fee-paying clients are only too aware. Place a few carefully-chose books atop coffee tables is about
creating an ambiance. No one actually engages with the content.

And this principle can be transferred to the home -. ‘I’ve not actually read any of them. I just love the bindings.’
So said the actress, Davinia Taylor, earlier this year when she decided to put her house on the market –
complete with its carefully-sourced collection of classic books. Rarely removed from their perch on a
bookcase in the living room, their primary purpose was to disguise Taylor’s walk-in fridge. And so, with the
fridge no longer destined to be a feature in her life, the books were deemed redundant.

Perhaps, then, the future of books lies in this. With more and more being bought in the undeniably handier
digital format, the first casualties of the tangible variety are likely to be the beach-read paperbacks – the ones
that if you invite Abigail Hall around, would be relegated to the garage anyway. But given the uses to which
we put our other tomes – whether they’re deployed to show off, look pretty, or create an atmosphere – the
odds of them hanging around look good. The kudos of great work is still there, and there’s nothing like being,
and being seen to be, in possession of the real thing.

Proficiency Expert SB, Unit 5A, p72-73

ANSWERS

The writer believes the home library will survive because of the statement books make about the home
owner.
1C (other aspects of the print media have felt the heat of virtual competition – why not books?)

2C (there then ensued much speculation …)

3B (Perhaps we all seek out whose tastes in such matters match our own)

4D (Books define a space … you’ve immediately created an area)

5A (their primary purpose was to disguise … fridge … no longer destined to be a feature … so books
were deemed redundant)

6B (- the odds of them hanging around look good)

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Will the home library survive the surge of the e-book?

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/will-the-home-library-survive-the-surge-of-
the-e-book-2298751.html

Picture of the bookshelf

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When loo roll heiress Davinia Taylor first set eyes on her bright white Victorian villa in St John’s Wood in
North London it was love at first sight.

Fast forward five years and the former Hollyoaks actress’s affection for the seven-bedroom house has not
waned, but sadly her marriage to football agent David Gardner, who is best friends with David Beckham,
has been less enduring.

The pair divorced last year, with Gardner citing Davinia’s ‘unreasonable behaviour’, and Davinia, who
battled alcoholism and depression before being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, lost custody of their three-
year-old son Grey.
She now has to sell the property as part of the divorce settlement and she is so desperate to move on that
she has slashed half-a-million pounds off the asking price to £5.95 million.
‘Someone will come along and take advantage of that situation – I know I would. We’re selling for pretty
much the same amount as we bought it for in 2005,’ says the 33-year-old whose father, Alan Murphy, made
his £200 million fortune making toilet paper.
Davinia, who gained notoriety as a key player in the Primrose Hill party set that includes Kate Moss, Jude
Law and Sadie Frost, admits leaving the house behind will be bitter-sweet because it holds so many
memories, fondest of which is the time she put up Kate Moss and her daughter Lila Grace for six months in
the basement.

‘Kate had just split up with Pete Doherty and was in between houses so it was a bit of a refuge for her.
'There were 20 paparazzi standing outside the front door every day.
'Luckily, you can get in and out of the house through the garage so she would slip out that way.
‘It was one of my happiest times here with Kate’s daughter Lila running in and out of the garden.’
Now eight months pregnant by a man she isn’t naming, Davinia could never have envisaged this
turnaround in her fortunes when she and Gardner bought the house after selling their former home,
Supernova Heights, in nearby Primrose Hill for £3.25 million to the comedian David Walliams.

Proficiency Expert SB, Unit 5A, p72-73

‘I thought we’d be here for a long time. But I believe everything happens for a reason and I’m not the sort of
person to be haunted by resentment – I’m looking forward to a new chapter,’ says Davinia who plans to buy
an apartment by the River Thames once she has sold.

Bargain: Davinia has knocked half a million pounds off the asking price of her home
For now she has moved back in with her mother, Wendy. Mum’s place is a splendid Tudor manor house in
Cheshire with a beautiful tithe barn in the grounds which Davinia and her mother – who divorced from Alan
when Davinia was 20 – have completely restored.
‘The plan was for me to live in the barn but then I found out I was pregnant and I’m not sure there’s enough
room so I might have to chuck Mum out of the manor,’ says Davinia.
Davinia has a passion for interior design and could immediately see the potential in the house she is now
selling, although her ex-husband needed more persuading to see past its rather shambolic appearance.
‘Poor David likes everything to be just so,’ says Davinia.
The house needed rewiring and completely redecorating. Davinia added baroque wallpaper and hung
opulent dark silk curtains. But after failing to find a buyer since the house went on the market last summer,
she has more recently redecorated in a more neutral style.
‘My taste reflects the fact that I’m much more of a night-time person – this was definitely a party house for
me – but that sort of style perhaps doesn’t show the house off to its full potential,’ she says.

Taylor-made: After failing to find a buyer since the house went on the market last summer, Davinia has
redecorated in a more neutral style, this is what her sitting room looked like before
Traces of Davinia’s old decor remain though – including the dramatic chandeliers. A huge custom-made
one still hangs in the kitchen.
Proficiency Expert SB, Unit 5A, p72-73
There is also a stunning master bedroom suite with a hall-of-mirrors-style dressing room and a free-
standing Victorian bath tub. In the living room there’s a wall of bookcases full of vintage
books, sourced by Davinia, which will be included in the sale.
‘I’ve not actually read any of them, I just love the bindings,’ she says.

Tellingly, the bookcases shield a hidden door that leads down to a catering-size
walk-in fridge which Davinia reveals ‘was always crammed full of booze’ for the
regular dinner parties she loved to host.

But whatever the troubles of her personal life, Davinia’s surroundings have always been beautiful.
She grew up in a converted farmhouse in the picturesque village of Roby Mill outside Wigan. After leaving
Hollyoaks, where she played party girl Jude Cunningham for two years, she moved to London and rented in
the Peninsula Heights development overlooking the river in Vauxhall, South London, before buying her first
home – Supernova Heights – for a reported £2.5 million from former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher and his
then wife Meg Mathews. Davinia was then just 22.

The house holds so many memories, fondest of which is the time Davinia put up Kate Moss and her
daughter Lila Grace for six months
‘I partied there with Noel and Meg and when they said they were moving to the country I nearly bit their
hands off,’ says Davinia, whose ex-boyfriends include footballer Ryan Giggs.
Davinia is also selling a five-bedroom ‘uber-modern’ beach-front house with infinity pool in Los Menteros
outside Marbella in Spain for £11.9 million.
‘It’s breathtaking, I designed it myself. It’s next door to our family home out there – Antonio Banderas is a
neighbour.

‘It was going to be our family home in the sun but it’s a bit indulgent to have another house there now I’m on
my own. I’m just tying up everything since the divorce,’ says Davinia, who now runs a hair and beauty salon
also offering Botox and fillers called Taylor Made in London’s West End.
‘We work with my mum’s plastic surgery company Mya, so you can get hair plugs or boob jobs on credit –
I’m sorting mine out as soon as I’ve had the baby,’ she says.
Davinia is still coming to terms with her pregnancy, which she only found out about when she felt the baby
kicking at five months while on holiday in the US.
‘It’s a magical thing but I am still in shock and feel a bit detached from it. The father and I are together –
he’ll be at the birth with my mum – but we don’t live together. It was an accident and it’s not conventional
but I’m really happy with how things are going.’

Proficiency Expert SB, Unit 5A, p72-73