Shelfies #61: Will Wiles

One of my pet sociological theories is that “status” is overestimated as a motivation. There’s a broadly held view that people’s habits are driven by public display, and this is particularly true when it comes to books, as they’re both nice objects in themselves and markers of intellectual activity. You see this in the current online discussions about “performative reading”, about the candy-coloured shelves of hardbacks maintained by Instagram people, about whether books should be for reading and mistreating or for display. I’ve written about architecture and design for more than twenty years, and I’ve listened to a lot of people talk about why they have created beautiful environments or objects for themselves or for other people. My theory is that we care about the perception of others much less than is supposed, and when we think about being seen with a particular book, or how we would show our friends around our beautiful homes, we are really thinking about how we feel about ourselves rather than the imagined reaction of others. That’s still vanity, but it’s not about updating our position in a sprawling league table. 

I mention this because I’ve been agonising over what shelf to share with you far longer than any reasonable human being should, and it’s ridiculous. I’m embarrassed. Downstairs, in the living room, I have some well-built bookshelves that were put together with display at least partly in mind. It should have been the work of thirty seconds. But they didn’t feel right. And as for the shelf upstairs, by the bed, I couldn’t possibly show that before I had sorted it out. The keepers of this newsletter, the Shelf Preservation Society, ask us not to tidy up, but there’s tidying and there’s tidying. I did tidy a bit. Quite a lot, to be honest, that’s the largest area of bare shelf I’ve seen since we moved house. You’ll notice there aren’t any straight lines in the picture – this ancient Billy has become rather non-Euclidean over the years. 

From bottom to top: hardbacks; fantasy; science fiction; weird & horror; more SF. My pathetic weakness for matchy-matchy editions will be noticeable, and my slow accumulation of covers by Bruce Pennington and Ian Miller. There’s a lot of stuff that’s not here, because it’s downstairs, or heaped in the topmost or bottommost shelves which I have tastefully cropped out, or it’s in one of the three cardboard boxes under the window. You’d all be wowed by my Michael Crichtons, I know. What was on my mind when filling these shelves? Not display, as this is just about the most private corner of the house. Thinking about it, I see an odd mix of ancient and modern – some of my most recent bookshop and second-hand purchases, and some of the first “proper” books I owned. Fundamentally I see the books I look at when I’m tired and I want something reliable just before bed. 

Will Wiles is the author of several novels. The Last Blade Priest, an epic fantasy, won the Red Tentacle for best novel at the 2023 Kitschies. Its sequel, The Dead Man's Empire, will be published in early 2026 and is available for pre-order now. Will's most recent book is The Anechoic Chamber and Other Weird Tales. 

Shelfies is edited by Lavie Tidhar and Jared Shurin.
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