Sunday Shelfie with Anna Wharton

I'm launching a new Substack series, and I’m the guinea pig for the first one

Today I am launching a new biweekly section on my Substack and it is called Sunday Shelfie.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I visit someone’s home I’m always drawn to their bookshelves and while they’re busy fixing a coffee or using the bathroom, that’s where you’ll find me, snooping through their books.

Don’t you think a bookshelf tells you so much about a person?

And so, I thought this is exactly what is missing from Substack, a poke around writers’ bookshelves, and over the course of this series, that is what I intend to give you.

This is the format it will take, each writer will give you a peek through the keyhole with a ‘shelfie’ of their bookshelves, then they’ll talk you through what they’ve got, how they organise it, their guilty pleasures and their favourite reads via a probing Q&A.

Not only is this a chance to hear from some of your favourite writers but you’ll get a nosey behind the scenes as well as some fascinating book recommendations.

I have some great writers lined up for you over the coming months, yet it seemed only fair to launch this new series by giving you a poke around my own bookshelves, so firstly a reminder for new subscribers of who I am.

I am a ghostwriter of memoir, most well known for my work with Wendy Mitchell and the three books we wrote together, Somebody I Used to Know, What I Wish People Knew About Dementia and One Last Thing – How To Live With The End in Mind. I have also written six or seven (I never remember without counting) other memoirs for people, including CUT – One Woman’s Fight Against FGM in Britain Today by Hibo Wardere which was longlisted for The Orwell Prize. I am also a novelist, my debut novel, The Imposter, was published in 2021 and I am working on my second novel.

But what you really want to see are my bookshelves right? So here they are:

How would you describe your collection of books? Any favourite genres?

I would say it’s an eclectic mix of fiction and non-fiction. It definitely represents how my taste has changed over the last few years too. There are some stragglers, commercial fiction that I was reading ten years ago, but they’re slowly being booted out by more literary fiction and of course, memoir and craft books. And the shelf of my own books is taking up more and more space what with translations etc.

How many books do you estimate you have and how are they organised, if at all?

Ooh, I’ve never had a count up, 300 maybe? Although the top shelf is taken up by my leftover bookshop stock. Anyone who follows me will not be surprised to learn that I am not organised at all. I wish I was, especially when I’m desperately searching for a title. Actually, maybe I’m being mean to myself, there is some organisation in terms of writing craft books which are all mostly plonked together, the same could be said about my feminist non-fiction, and of course the books I have written.

In percentage terms, how many of the total books on your shelves have you read?

Ooh, I’m gonna go for 65 percent but I’m probably being generous.

Which three books are top of your TBR (To Be Read) pile at the moment?

1. Shame by Annie Ernaux, I’ve had it a while and read all her others but I haven’t made it to this one yet

2. Orbital by Samantha Harvey, a good friend bought it for my birthday in February and I haven’t read it yet but seeing it making an appearance on this week’s Booker Prize longlist reminded me

3. Intervals by Marianne Brooker. It’s been beside my bed for months, I must – must – get to it.

Which book on your bookshelf is the most well-thumbed/do you return to the most, and why?

I’m not very good at re-reading books as I just have so many still to be read, but I’d say my Annie Ernaux section (Ah yes, I do have another section!) is particularly scuffed and well-thumbed.

Which book on your bookshelf do you most often buy as a gift for others, and why?

Easy, the living autobiography trilogy by Deborah Levy. I have bought many a bundle of that for friends.

If you have a collection of writing craft books, which is your favourite and why?

I really like The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr and I’ve gone back to that time and again. I usually end up reading craft books at the beginning of the new year, good intentions and all that...

If you write within a particular genre, can you tell us your three favourite books within that genre (classic or contemporary) and why?

1. I’m going to cheat a bit here, two books for one answer, Getting Lost and Simple Passion, both by Annie Ernaux. The first is the diary she kept when she was planning on writing the second, and so it’s interesting to see how it turned out and what decisions she made editorially.

2. I’ve just read All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung, her interrogation of growing up as an adopted girl of Korean heritage with white American parents. I couldn’t put it down, the narrative was so compelling as we were learning things as she was — the basic art of storytelling yet we often overcomplicate things.

3. And here comes Deborah Levy again, Real Estate spoke to me in so many ways in terms of where I was in my life when I read it, and even where I am now.

Which book on your bookshelf is your guilty pleasure?

A few months ago I bought some Jilly Cooper classics that I read as a teenager when I heard that she had read this newsletter: Octavia, Harriet, Imogen. I lent them to a friend who was sick recently and needed some easy reading and she said they didn’t stand the test of time in terms of things we’d never write now (something about how virgins are more malleable!!)

Which book on your bookshelf do you feel most guilty for not having read yet, and why?

Too many of the classics! But I’m going to go for Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Which book would we be most surprised to find on your bookshelf?

Books on perfectionism — it was for character research!

Which book on your shelf would you take to a desert island, and why?

Annie Ernaux’s The Years. If you haven’t read her, start there.

Which book is on your wishlist currently to join all the others on your bookshelf?

Elif Shafak

’s new book There Are Rivers in the Sky, I keep refreshing my browser and willing the publication date forward… not long now!