Sunday Shelfie with David Whitehouse

This week’s Sunday Shelfie is not so much a long browse through dozens of shelves, but a quick glance across one, but our author has a good excuse in that he’s recently moved house and his books are still in storage.

However, I’m super grateful that he still agreed to share with us some of the gems he’s got tucked away in those boxes, and what we may have had to sacrifice in photos, we have made up for in some brilliant book recommendations.

And before we get into them, don’t forget to subscribe to White Ink to receive every Sunday Shelfie straight into your inbox:

So, without further ado, this week I have for you the writer David Whitehouse.

David Whitehouse

David is the author of three acclaimed novels. His first, Bed, won the 2012 Betty Trask Prize 2012. His second, Mobile Library, won the 2015 Jerwood Fiction Prize. In 2022, his debut non-fiction book, About A Son, was shortlisted for The Gordon Burn Prize and the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and his latest book, Saltwater Mansions, was published this month to rave reviews. I finished reading it last night and honestly it is probably the best non-fiction book I have read all year. It made me weep, it made me gasp out loud, it made me text the friend who bought me it, and it was utterly compelling and original. David is a master storyteller and if you haven’t read his work before, you absolutely must.

David also took part in one of my Twelve Days of Christmas Writing Advice series a few years ago and you can find his brilliant advice on finding the shape and structure of your story and how each story demands an original treatment.

On The Fifth Day of Christmas

But what we want to have a look at is that one shelf he’s got currently, right? And here it is:

Let’s get into some more details about his entire collection in those boxes:

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

It’s eclectic but not by design. I studied journalism at university, though 50% of the course was about history, politics and philosophy, so I still have those books I pretended to read back then about Nietzsche and all that. I like that my books are, collectively, a kind of diary of my past. I can look at any of them and remember where and who I was when I got it, even though the books vary quite wildly. As do, I suppose, the past versions of me. If I’ve a favourite genre, it’s probably creative non-fiction. I always fall for true stories told with a novelistic scope and ambition. But my favourite genre might change tomorrow.

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

I think probably between six hundred and eight hundred. They’re far from organised though. The shelf in the picture above is currently the only bookshelf in my house because it was there when I moved in. The people who lived here before me decorated like maniacs. So I need to have new shelves built, but there are other more pressing things I can’t afford first, meaning my books are everywhere in stacks and piles and boxes, as disorganised as it’s possible for anything to be. That said, I doubt I’d organise them on shelves either.

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

Maybe 60-70%? I get sent proofs I’d love to find time for but can’t. Sometimes I’ll read very intensively for a period and then it’ll drop off. Or, the work I’m doing can affect how much I read and what it is. I don’t feel bad about it though. They’re nice decorations.

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

1. Street-Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence by Will Hodgkinson

2. The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard

3. The Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel

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

I dip in and out of books about The Beatles for comfort. Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald is good for that. When I’m writing I’ll return to True Stories by Helen Garner, just because she’s a phenomenal writer, and reading people who write with such fierce clarity helps make your own writing clearer on a day when it’s not really happening. Sex & Violence, Death & Silence by Gordon Burn is another one that’s good for that.

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

I’ve given a few people With The End In Mind by Kathryn Mannix at times when it’s felt like they might need it. I also like to give people All The Devils Are Here by David Seabrook. If you catch the right person with that at the right time, it can really do a number on them. Finally, a novel called The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. I know he won the Pulitzer Prize for it, so he’s doing alright, but I can’t believe I don’t hear more people talking about this book. It’s mesmeric in parts and up there with my favourite novels.

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

I struggle to read them, with a few notable exceptions like Stephen King’s On Writing and Conversations With My Agent by Rob Long. Which isn’t so much about craft as the business of writing. I like podcasts about craft though. Some of them anyway. With books about craft my mind wanders

A new 25th anniversary edition of On Writing is published in July with a new foreword

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

I can’t impose an order on them, so ignore the order I’m imposing here, but if the genre is creative non-fiction, then:

1. This House of Grief by Helen Garner. It’s the story of a trial, and her ability to find the humanity in horror is quite profound I think.

2. Happy Like Murderers by Gordon Burn. The story of Fred and Rose West isn’t for everyone, clearly, but as an attempt to bring understanding to what is impossible to understand, it’s peerless I think.

3. Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters. A lesson in how to write about a person who exists in the world but wasn’t noticed, until now.

Which book on your bookshelf is your guilty pleasure?

I have been known to read my kids’ Captain Underpants books when they're not around. There are lines in those books funny enough to grace any comedic books written for adults, I’m convinced of it.

David’s guilty pleasure….

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

I’m bad at the classics. I have Catcher in the Rye but haven’t read it and don’t know why. And the only George Eliot book I’ve read is Middlemarch, when we were forced to at school, which is especially bad because I’m from the same town as George Eliot. I know I’d love her books, I’m sure of it. But being made to read them when I was too young and stupid burned me a little, I think.

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

A comprehensive collection of Viz annuals maybe. I love Viz and don’t trust anyone who doesn’t.

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

I already mentioned it, but maybe The Orphan Master’s Son. I’m fascinated by North Korea, and the way he has written this story about a place we can barely comprehend is magnificent. I really felt it.

Which book is on your wish-list currently to join all the others on your bookshelf?

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood. One of Britain’s most underrated novelists for my money. I love everything he does, and this sounds great.

• Thanks so much to David for taking part, and apologies that you now have so many more books to add to your own collections. Were there any books that David discussed that you are a big fan of? I read With The End in Mind when I was writing my final book with Wendy Mitchell, and I must read more Helen Garner, particularly having read her diaries recently.

Just one more point to make in that each book listed has an affiliate link to my bookshop.org author bookshop, and so if you order through them, I may receive a little commission, which would of course be lovely.

Anyway, over to you, what do you have to say about David’s book collection?