Sunday Shelfie with Kate Spicer
If you are in the UK this weekend, I hope you have weathered the storm. It is a little bit of a metaphorical theme actually for this week’s Sunday Shelfie as you will see as you read on. This week we have Kate Spicer sharing her bookshelves with you, well, not exactly her bookshelves which she will explain more of.
Kate is an author, journalist and documentary maker. She has written for The Sunday Times, The Times, The Daily Mail, Vogue and Red, among others. Her first book Lost Dog: A Love Story was published in 2019 and was a Sunday Times Bestseller.
Kate is currently away from her own beloved bookshelves and when we were discussing this particular Sunday Shelfie I remembered how sad I have been at times when I have not been near my own. Does anyone else feel like that? I remember once I lived in a bungalow with a mezzanine level and just having them tucked away upstairs was enough to make me miss them. I need books around me, perhaps you feel the same.
Anyway, more about Kate. For those of you who don’t already know, Kate has a brilliant substack which you must subscribe to if you haven’t already:
But, let’s check out the current bookshelves that she’s looking at:
How would you describe your collection of books? Any favourite genres?
Well I am currently living with my mum at the grand old age of 55 as my relationship has fallen apart. There is a small but very telling selection of books here that are mine, which my mum has put together on top of a chest in my bedroom. I was looking at this collection of maybe 30 books and thinking is was quite a precise summary of my reading tastes. I have lots of reference books, including really old ones that aren’t useful but lovely for stepping back in time, novels mid 20th century to around 2000, I love drug and recovery novels and memoirs if they are well written, I like autofiction about really interesting lives, I like old books about flawed heroines, Tess of the D’Urbavilles, Jane Eyre, Madame Bovary, anything Jean Rhys. The first Mrs Rochester is one of my spirit animals. I am a great fan, very unfashionably, of embittered cynical but brilliant misanthropic writers, like the St Aubyn fella, horrible Houellebecq, and chiefly Martin Amis who is just so genius at writing humour into all the vile pathetic anger in men. I always buy Booker Prize winners but hardly ever read them, Shuggie Bain was the last. I love dystopian near future sci fi, JG Ballard, Orwell’s 1984, I love dystopian near future and will jump on it but not at all into the proper futuristic space age stuff, I only ever read this kind of stuff if it was written by the GLORIOUS Ursula le Guin
How many books do you estimate you have and how are they organised, if at all?
Gosh, 400/500 maybe, don’t know. My ex was constantly trying to filet the bookshelves as he hates clutter, he didn’t like uncool, or unliterary or health books especially and would constantly put them in bin bags for the charity shop and I’d just unpack them all and leave them in towers all round my study where I have had to sleep for the last three months with all my books and papery clutter. He only buys cool books, the sort that would be recommended by the FT.
In percentage terms, how many of the total books on your shelves have you read?
Well reference books are for dipping, and some of them are research books for books and projects which I tend to skim, but if we include that as “read”, then maybe 85%, if you mean cover to cover then about half maybe
Which three books are top of your TBR (To Be Read) pile at the moment?
1. The Outrun by Amy Liptrot. (I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t read it yet but looking forward to it)
2. This Is Not Propaganda, Peter Pomerantsev (I keep trying to start it, but I can’t get beyond the first pages)
3. I can’t remember it’s some time since I’ve seen my bedside table (sad face) as my ex is living in our home and I am a refugee here
Which book on your bookshelf is the most well-thumbed/do you return to the most, and why?
Used to be Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky, lately more Martin Amis, The Information. The Sheltering Sky is a very readable existential document and bloody good story. Also I used to travel a lot in the Middle East and North Africa and it reminds me of the desert a lot. But I don’t think I like Paul Bowles any more, he wasn’t very nice. The Information reminds me of the ridiculousness and neurosis in writing.
Which book on your bookshelf do you most often buy as a gift for others, and why?
Oh Caledonia by Elspeth Barker is such a good read and quietly dark. I love those eccentric girl rattling round crumbling old house with her tame raven type stories, and it is a good present for any woman
If you have a collection of writing craft books, which is your favourite?
Stephen King On Writing. Can’t remember the others, but I have quite a few.
If you write within a particular genre, can you tell us your three favourite books within that genre (classic or contemporary) and why?
I am known for a memoir about a messed up life and loving and losing my dog. Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher. It’s just really balls out and funny. She doesn’t give a fuck. I am not a fan of whimsical or coy female writing.
Augusten Burroughs’ Dry - he’s just entirely truthful and his humour reads effortlessly, a lot of humour is so laboured
Permanent Midnight by Jerry Stahl. I can’t remember much about it but I know I ripped through this book about an LA screenwriter with bad heroin habit. I love reading memoir written with humour about the person’s horribly fucked up life.
I have to give Jade Sharma’s Problems a mention, its autofiction about her addiction, there is not one tired trope in it. I recommend it all the time
Which book on your bookshelf is your guilty pleasure?
Well I feel pretty guilty about the number of books by men, I should read more women. I hate myself.
Which book on your bookshelf do you feel most guilty for not having read yet, and why?
My sister in law’s book; my friend’s book, my other friend’s book; This Is Not Propaganda by Peter Pomerantsev because my friend who is a sort of spy gave it to me and is longing to talk to me about it and I just can’t get into it
Which book would we be most surprised to find on your bookshelf?
I have a book by Gwyneth Paltrow. And the Marquis de Sade. I haven’t read either.
Which book on your shelf would you take to a desert island, and why?
I don’t know, a really really big one. Dostoyevsky maybe. Crime and Punishment could probably stand up to a few readings. Can I take a few Jilly Coopers as palate cleansers?
Which book is on your wishlist currently to join all the others on your bookshelf?
I know I need to read All Fours by Miranda July, every middle aged woman I know is obsessed. I’ll probably read something by PG Wodehouse though.
• Thank you so much to Kate for taking part, I absolutely loved her run through of her bookshelves and hope she gets back to them soon. Don’t forget to check out Kate’s substack here.
If you’ve enjoyed this, like it, share it, and let me know what you think in the comments, you know how much I love to hear from you.
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I love everything about physical books and the memories attached to them, but have recently sold about 1500 books, to raise money for a Kabal based animal rescue I support. I’m increasingly needing to use Kindle for the back lighting & lightness of my Kindle reader. It was a huge wrench but eased by knowing it was helping to save human & animal lives. I still have boxes of yellowing classics I can’t part with, and my battered Mary Webb books & copy of The Secret Garden will never be sold, as sometimes I just need to hold them and carry them around 💕
I am about to move out of an apartment, and haven't found a new rental place. I have 8 days left to move out, and I have two book shelves I have not packed yet, as I cannot imagine not having access to any books. I know that I will take at least one crate of books to my temporary home, while the others will go into storage. I am already dreading their absence. My books are really like a comfort blanket.