What do you think if...

[everythingsxen]

you go to someones house and they have an inordinate number of books on a particular historical figure?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[ghostsofgiants]

1. Would depend on who the historical figure was I would think.

[AlienGirl]

5. How would it depend?

[ghostsofgiants]

10. Well if they had a big collection of books on, say, Gandhi...

I would ave a much different opinion than if they had a bunch of books about Mao Tse-tung. But I wouldn't jump to conclusions.

[fleabert]

2. I concur. depends on the subject matter.

we have many books on Lincoln and Oscar Wilde, what does that tell you?

[Robeson]

3. Depends on how big their library is....

...in my case, I have thousands of books, so obviously, I'm going to have several on the same subject.

[NMMNG]

4. What do you consider an inordinate amount?

[AlienGirl]

6. More than ten, say...

[NMMNG]

7. Could be a number of reasons

They have a keen intellectual interest
They were studying that person for some reason (school, work, etc.)
They are obsessed

[Omphaloskepsis]

8. I have a ton of books on...

Joseph R. McCarthy. I'm not a fan, I just had to write a paper.

A bunch of books on Hitler wouldn't bother me. A flag next to the bookcase would.

[Heidi]

9. I guess I wouldn't make any judgment about it.

Here's why: under the Patriot Act, the government has the authority to review our library records and, probably, our book purchases. I naively hope the government isn't using that information to make judgments about our character(s). Being interested in a particular historical figure does not necessarily mean one agrees with that historical figure.