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Suppose I want to write a review about a specific book. I want to include this (two forms):

  • This is an essential book for everyone's bookshelf
  • This is an essential book for everyone's bookshelves

Which one is correct?

This question has been linked to the one about "children crawling on their back / on their backs" but the situation is slightly different here. There it was multiple "children are crawling on their back(s)", but here 'book' is singular.

Identical in meaning:

  • This is an essential book for any bookshelf (clearly singular)
  • This is an essential book for all bookshelves (clearly plural)

"Everyone's bookshelf" if bookshelf is a class "Everyone's bookshelves" if bookshelf is an instance

Does the singular 'book' that starts it off stands for the abstract 'book' or an 'instance' book? The sentence is about the content, not the physical book.

What about:

  • Here is a book for your bookshelf (you give someone a copy of a book, a single copy can clearly only be located in a single place).

Maybe this is one of those fuzzy parts of language where grammar professors have very strict ideas but speakers vary?

Or maybe 'bookshelves' because the singular book is not a physical book, but the book as the 'story'. In that case plural shelves is logical, because that single story translates into many physical copies.

The first answer of "They're using a cell phone" vs. "They're using cell phones", which explains 'distributive plural' versus 'distributive singular' is probably the correct answer.

gctwnl
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  • What do you want to tell us? What's the context? Is it a book you want to refer to often or one you may look at occasionally? Bookshelves suggests a large collection of books, that possibly aren't looked at very often, bookshelf suggests a small collection, maybe kept close at hand. You may also have an ornamental bookshelf, such as the one that's behind your head on a video call, in which case you might want to show the book off but not read it. – Stuart F Aug 05 '22 at 08:26
  • Is the focus that you should keep the book, or where you should specifically keep it? I feel that repeating the word book is like saying "A breakfast food you should eat for breakfast". – Weather Vane Aug 05 '22 at 09:11
  • In my personal case, I keep my book collection on multiple bookshelves, so I would probably use 'bookshelves'. If I had only a single bookshelf, then saying or thinking 'bookshelf' would make more sense to me. – Brandin Aug 05 '22 at 12:04
  • I've tried to clarity the question with a better example and re-open it. – gctwnl Aug 05 '22 at 13:30
  • I think the use of “on your bookshelf” elevates the particular book as being of superlative value in literature over other books. As an example, of the many novels of Frank Herbert, Dune is by far the most well-known, having won a Hugo award, and the very first Nebula award. It has been made into several movies and television series. Personally, if I were in the unenviable situation of having to have just one science fiction novel in my bookcase, Dune would be my choice. – IconDaemon Aug 05 '22 at 13:32
  • I don't understand how so many luminaries missed the boat here. We don't say bookshelf here. We say library: This book is essential for everyone's library. Libraries as in personal or home library. However, an adjective is not really necessary. – Lambie Aug 05 '22 at 15:39
  • What about, "This is a book for everyone?" – ncmathsadist Aug 05 '22 at 20:46
  • Hi @ncmathsadist (and @Lambie). Sure, but that was not the question. What if I definitely want to use bookshelf/bookshelves and not an alternative like 'for everyone's library' or create a different workaround? Plural or singular? – gctwnl Aug 06 '22 at 23:21
  • It's an unnecessary complexity – ncmathsadist Aug 07 '22 at 01:56
  • @gctwnl "For everyone's library" should almost certainly be a singular library. "For everyone's bookshelf" or "for everyone's bookshelves" both sound fine to me. If you don't know whether "everyone" has a singlular bookshelf or whether she has a plural of bookshelves, I think you are free to pick which grammatical form you think best reflects the situation you have in mind. – Brandin Aug 07 '22 at 05:10
  • The examples seem more contrived than real but either way, wouldn't the thought be better expressed as "… for everyone's shelves" in the plural and without the semi-tautological 'bookshelves'? – Robbie Goodwin Sep 02 '22 at 23:55
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    My problem was more or less that I think that any single book can only sit on a single shelf. But it's clear that both are possible, singular kind of fits the 'single book can only sit on a single shelf' aspect and plural fits the intended meaning 'library' (plural 'bookshelves' as a way to say singular 'library'). Thanks all for the comments. – gctwnl Oct 17 '22 at 12:00
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    Does this answer your question? "They're using a cell phone" vs. "They're using cell phones" The expression 'for everyone's bookshelf' is nigh-on idiomatic (many people just have piles of books): virtually equivalent to 'for everyone to own'. The distributive singular is best: "for everyone's bookshelf" outperforms "for everyone's bookshelves" about 13 : 1 in raw Google searches. – Edwin Ashworth May 27 '23 at 15:43
  • My child made an observation: they said that in English the term for a class is often (always?) specifically plural. For instance, "Wednesdays are my favourite days". If you say "Wednesday is my favourite day" you are more likely to mean a specific singular day. This rhymes with the first answer of https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/301625/theyre-using-a-cell-phone-vs-theyre-using-cell-phones, which explains 'distributive plural' versus 'distributive singular'. Thank you very much. – gctwnl May 28 '23 at 10:12

1 Answers1

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It depends on whether you envisage each person as having one bookshelf or having several. It would be rather unusual to have only a single bookshelf, insofar as the typical bookcase has multiple shelves. So it would make the most sense to say:

This is an essential book for everyone's bookshelves.

alphabet
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  • My child made an observation: they said that in English the term for a class is often (always?) specifically plural. For instance, "Wednesdays are my favourite days". If you say "Wednesday is my favourite day" you are more likely to mean a specific singular day. This rhymes with the first answer of https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/301625/theyre-using-a-cell-phone-vs-theyre-using-cell-phones, mentioned in a comment above, which explains 'distributive plural' versus 'distributive singular'. Thank you very much. – gctwnl May 28 '23 at 10:13