Shelfies #19: Stark Holborn

We moved house recently and the majority of setting up my new writing space involved putting books on shelves. Instant dilemma. Which books? Which shelves? Poetry should stay together, but what about Penguin Classics? Why are all SFF books such different sizes? Graphic novels! Author copies...

Anyway, the alcoves of my writing room have weird dimensions, just high enough to stack books two high, which is good because they can house my OVERSIZED collection.

Lavie and Jared probably think I'm angling for free pints with this photo, but when I was thinking about which shelf to feature, this one had a genuinely interesting selection. They all collect something; Baldwin's and Le Guin's essays, testimonies, history, phrases, stories, poems... Collecting and re-ordering stuff is an essential part of my writing process. Maybe that's why these books have ended up together near my desk.

The Oxford Book of English Verse was my dad's for years, and he gifted it to me on my 12th birthday. He'd not long had a stroke and was learning to write again, so the inscription in the front looks like it says "on your 112th birthday". I like the idea of keeping it with me until I'm 112. My dad gave me the backbone of my literary tastes by introducing me to science fiction and fantasy, Blake, Burroughs and the Blues.

Jim Henson's The Storyteller was a book I adored as a child for its twisted, deeply strange tales (my favourite: Fearnot).  Maybe it was a library book, I don't know, because it disappeared one day and – being five or six – I couldn't remember what the title was. Cue years of fruitlessly googling "weird fairy tale book with white cover" before a friend just happened to mention it in passing. I think I cried when I found it again.

I'm obsessed with glossaries, especially of slang and vernacular, so the edition of Harrap's English-French Slang was an extremely welcome gift from my friend Jude.

The Norton Shakespeare I keep half as a relic and reminder of my literature degree and half out of stubbornness.

And obviously, you should all go and buy The Big Book of Cyberpunk (I love the softcover US-edition) and The Best of World SF. :)

Stark Holborn is the author of the Factus Sequence, the Triggernometry series, and the groundbreaking digital serial, Nunslinger. Stark’s fiction has been nominated for the British Fantasy Awards, the BSFA Awards and the New Media Writing Prize. Stark also works as a games writer on TIGA-award winning games projects, and is currently lead writer on SF detective game, Shadows of Doubt and a contributing writer on cyberpunk slice of life sim, Nivalis.

Shelfies is edited by Lavie Tidhar and Jared Shurin. If you are interested in sharing a shelfie, please let us know.