Unlike many keen readers and writers, I’m not a
book hoarder. I don’t have stacks of musty paperbacks heaped in my hall and
certainly haven’t got hundreds of boxes in the garage. In fact, I hate clutter
and for me being a book lover means only keeping those books which are either
really beautiful or very useful, and depending on the book, I keep it in a
specific place in my home.
The first place you’d go to look for a book in my
house is to the library. Oo-la-la, sounds posh, dunnit? Actually, this was a
junk room that I decided to convert into a space for reading and listening to
music and which houses a variety of books belonging to the whole family. You’ll
see on these shelves classics from Middlemarch to yoga anatomy books. I
shelve the poetry, plays and short stories together and will regularly clear
these shelves to make space for newer, prettier books. I also have a small
non-fiction section including many self-help books encouraging me to be an all
round better human being! A sample of some of my teen novels are on the
left, all of which I’ve read. I’m not a fan of keeping books I haven’t read.
Makes me twitch a bit. My favourite of these books is A Monster Calls by
Patrick Ness. It’s a book I wish I’d written myself. I love it. On the bottom
right you can probably just make out some lovely hardbacks. Most of these are
signed by the authors (but not all). My favourite is probably Nora Webster
which I received as a gift recently when on a school visit in Dublin. The
librarian had actually managed to get Colm Tóibín to dedicate it to me. Makes a
change from chocolates or flowers (though I like getting those too, obviously)!
On the floor next to the shelves in the library are
boxes which contain some of my daughter’s books. I love these boxes because she
can flip through and choose for herself which books she wants to read. You
might be able to see Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus in the picture
(probably not!), which isn’t just one of her favourites but mine too. I have to
admit to being a little addicted to buying picture books at the moment and I’m
not quite as good at getting rid of these as I am of getting rid of musty
paperbacks or proofs. I also tend to tear out illustrations I love so I can decorate
the walls of my house!
My daughter’s room and playroom also contain many
boxes of books and bookshelves although I try to keep the quieter books in her
room so she won’t get too excited before bedtime. (Yeah, yeah, like that
works!)
My spare room is the place I put books that I’m
happy for others to read and take with them when they leave. This isn’t because
I don’t like the books, occasionally it’s because I want to find someone to
talk to about books I love. A proof copy of The Signature of All Things
has been on this shelf for too long and I fear that by the time a houseguest
reads it, I’ll have no recollection of the book whatsoever. Note to self: put
short books on this shelf.
One of my favourite book shelves is in my office.
My workspace is incredibly sparse – I find that physical clutter makes my mind
messy – so I only have a tiny selection of novels along with editions of my own
books. Here you’ll find my second favourite book in the whole world: The
Passion by Jeanette Winterson which I read when I was seventeen. It opened
up a whole new world for me in terms of the power of language and made me want
to write. I’ve had that edition for such a long time and only recently got her
to sign it when I met her at a reading in Manhattan. I blushed and stuttered,
but she was lovely. I also keep my own books in my office -- all editions
including foreign.
And the final pictures I’m including are of my
favourite of all favourite books – Orlando by Virginia Woolf. I have
several copies of it, but nothing like this. When I signed my very first book
deal I spoke to a rare books seller in Oxford and asked him to find me a
special edition of Orlando. He did. The one I now own is a limited
signed edition in Virginia Woolf’s purple ink. I don’t put this book on a shelf
and I’ve never read it from cover to cover because it’s too special and rare.
And it’s not just my favourite book. It’s my most prized possession.
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