Pretty ineffective status symbol, too. How many people whom you might want to impress are going to see exactly what's on your bookshelves, and know enough to re

Pretty ineffective status symbol, too. How many people whom you might want to impress are going to see exactly what's on your bookshelves, and know enough to recognize Knuth as impressive? I'll hazard a guess that most people for whom those are true also know enough to be more influenced by other more meaningful things than what books you happen to have on your shelves. (I bet some people do buy Knuth as a sort of status signal to themselves, though.)