Sunday Shelfie with Daisy Buchanan
I know I have already said happy new year to you all, but as we settle back into the swing of things and return to some of my regular columns, it feels like I should say it again. So, happy new year! I hope it is treating you well so far.
What with Christmas and New Year we haven’t had a Sunday Shelfie for a few weeks and I don’t know about you but I’m missing a nose around authors’ bookshelves.
For those who are new to White Ink a bit of a catch up, Sunday Shelfie sees writers opening up their bookcases for us to have a snoop around because, I don’t know about you, but whenever I visit someone’s home I am always drawn to their bookshelves. Don’t you think the books on people’s shelves tell you so much about them as a person? Plus, together with sharing photos of their bookshelves, authors answer a series of probing questions about what they’ve got there, and so this is always a great place to come for book recommendations and you will leave with a list of them to add to your TBR pile.
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This week,
is sharing her bookshelves with us.
Daisy Buchanan is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and bestselling author. Her novels include Pity Party, Limelight, Careering (a BBC Sounds book club selection) and Insatiable, which was long listed for the CWIP prize. Daisy’s non-fiction books include The Sisterhood, and How To Be A Grown Up. Her latest non-fiction title Read Yourself Happy will be published on February 6, so get pre-ordering now!
She also has a fabulous Substack
which you should check out:
What I find so fascinating about this series are the different ways that people choose to display their books, which sometimes says as much about the person as what they’ve got on them, and so I think you’ll find Daisy’s bookshelves very interesting this week. So, let’s have a look…
How would you describe your collection of books? Any favourite genres?
My collection can be described as ‘water damaged’ because I love reading in the bath! I love ‘women’s commercial fiction’, past and present. I’ll read anything that makes me laugh – Marian Keyes, Samantha Irby, Nancy Mitford, and everyone in between. I’m addicted to Persephone books. And – having considered my lifelong passion for Noel Streatfeild (especially Ballet Shoes) and the Babysitters’ Club, I worry that my favourite genre is ‘child labour’!
How many books do you estimate you have and how are they organised, if at all?
Oh, my! I’m writing this in my sitting room where I think there are maybe, at a very conservative estimate, 200 ish. (And some of the books are organized by publisher/imprint. We have a giant 1930s department store counter full of PG Wodehouse books, we have sheves for Virago books, NYRB books, orange Penguins etc. And the ‘coffee table’ art books are down here but there’s not a coffee table in the world big enough. We’ve got a lot of books about Bill Cunningham, Diana Vreeland, Stephen Sondheim –here I was thinking that we were quite eclectic, but it turns out that all we care about is 20th century New York!) Counting on my fingers, room by room, I think there must be at least a thousand books in my house.
In percentage terms, how many of the total books on your shelves have you read?
I’m hoping it’s 60/70 per cent. There’s a revolving door/chaos system of proof copies, library books, sneaky Kindle, borrowing, lending (every few weeks a friend will say ‘I have your books!’ and present me with ten hardbacks I’d forgotten I owned.)
Which three books are top of your TBR (To Be Read) pile at the moment?