Sunday Shelfie with Emma Forrest
What I love about my Sunday Shelfie series is… well, actually I just love everything about it. Not only is it a chance to snoop around authors’ bookshelves, but you get some great new book recommendations, and so today I know you’re going to love Emma Forrest’s picks because she always manages to find interesting and unusual titles that the rest of us have somehow missed.
She is also the coolest new arrival on Substack. If you don’t already, please immediately subscribe to The Peaceful Transfer of Power, you won’t regret it.
But, what we really want to see are her bookshelves, right? And here they are:
How would you describe your collection of books? Any favourite genres?
Hmm, having lived there and then ultimately left there because my life circumstances changed, I do love Hollywood lore and stories about the creation of Los Angeles as both a city and a myth. I love What Happens Next which is a history of American screenwriting by Marc Norman. I love the memoir Magic Hour by Jack Cardiff who was cinematographer of choice for the screen's greatest Golden Age goddesses. I actually love the trilogy of memoirs by Asa Akira, who is one of the most successful porn stars of all time, and also a great writer, they’re particularly evocative of the Valley, where I used to live. The best Hollywood essayist is Eve Babitz - I admire tremendously Joan Didion but I can’t feel her the way I feel Eve, who was far messier. But the best ever is Is That A Gun In Your Pocket by Rachel Abramowitz - an absolutely riveting history of women in Hollywood, on screen and off.
How many books do you estimate you have and how are they organised, if at all?
Literally, no idea, I just know I have the bespoke shelf along my ceiling and an antique cabinet of my favourite books that my kid lost the key to and no locksmith has ever been able to unlock. They say I need a safecracker. I’ll get to it, for now I can only look at my favourite books through the glass. I organised them as if it’s a dinner party. I put Dolly Alderton next to Annie Ernaux as I feel they’d have a lot to talk about.
In percentage terms, how many of the total books on your shelves have you read?
I’d say 75%
Which three books are top of your TBR (To Be Read) pile at the moment?
The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen which I can’t believe the socially trigger happy UK book stores stock (even though it’s a scathing satirical novel and won the Pulitzer for fiction). It’s a lovely blue Fitzcarraldo edition.
I will be re-reading Lola Kirke’s memoir of bohemian family dysfunction Wild West Village when it’s in stores, I have the proof and loved it but it’s got that yummy compulsive Eve Babitz feeling so I want to read it again.
I want to read Jean Hannah Edelstein’s upcoming Breasts, a memoir divided into Sex, Food, Cancer. I’ve just been sent the proof.
Which book on your bookshelf is the most well-thumbed/do you return to the most, and why?