Amy Coombe’s Shelfie
My husband and I bring very different organising principles to our shelving; he tends to shelve and reshelve and reshelve again, whereas I, once I put a book on a shelf, leave it there on that shelf in that spot, forever. Our collections are, after decades together, completely intermingled, and I'm happy to let him move my books around as long as he can then find them for me when I want them (and he usually can!).
This particular shelf, however, is my province; it's the bottom shelf of the bookcase on my side of the bed, and combines a desultory TBR with a collection of old favourites, books I've had since I was a kid and which have moved around with me for most of my life. My husband leaves it completely alone.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
One of my all-time favourite books, and this is the copy that has moved with me since I received it for Christmas in 1986. The pages are smudged and stained and torn; the cover is on its last legs; it is, in short, perfect.
A Knight In Shining Armor by Jude Devereux
Jude Devereux's classic timeslip romance novel, which my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas when I was 13 ("you're old enough for your first romance novel, and you like fantasy, so I think you'll like this one," she said, as I opened the package. She was right.) Devereux rewrote parts of the book for its 25th anniversary, which I don't think the book needed, so I'm particularly glad I've hung on to my own battered, orginal copy all these years.
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Thank you, The Folio Society, for finally bringing your gorgeous, high-quality editions to commerical bangers like Jurassic Park, where they can sit alongside my very serious Folio editions of Dickens and The Autocrat Of The Breakfast Table and Medieval People. Yes, I did need 500,000 gsm paper and full-colour illustrations in my slipcased edition, thank you!
Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot
My dad used to read the poems to me from this very volume when I was a kid; this battered edition is the same one I dragged to London in 1989, when Cats was on stage. The apparently extremely famous baritone playing Old Deuteronomy signed autographs during the interval so I had him sign my book. I can't read the signature (Donald something?) and there are post-it notes in the back from a college-era fundraiser I ran, where I read bedtime stories to people in my dorm to raise money for charity. There's a lot of history in this little book, is what I'm saying.
Multiple novels by Barbara Michaels
I've dragged this battered copy of Wait For What Will Come (1976) around since 1990, when a family friend left it in our car after a visit, and I read and fell in love with it. Michaels is better known by her other pen name, Elizabeth Peters, but I adore the gothic thrillers she wrote as Michaels and pick them up whenever I find them.
The Power Of One by Bryce Courtenay
My high school best friend lent me her copy of The Power Of One, which I sat on for ages before reading as it sounded suspiciously woowoo. Reader, it is not. The Power Of One is another novel I pick up whenever I find a nice paperback edition, either to reread or to press into someone else's hands. This is a copy I have decided to hang on to as part of the collection I'm putting together for my kid when they turn about 14.
The New York Times Games Summer Sunday Puzzles
I love the NYT Sunday crossword, and while this particular book has been completely solved, it still somehow wound up on this shelf. Since the local book-moving gremlin leaves this shelf alone... it'll probably live here forever.
Born and raised in California, Amy Coombe is an award-winning writer, editor and publisher. She has lived all over the United States and is now based in London. She’s an avid reader, a licensed mudlarker, an enthusiastic fossil-hunter, a fledgling birder, and a font of useless trivia. Her debut novel, Stay For A Spell, is very much about books (among other things). She’s also floating around on Instagram and Tumblr.
Shelfies is edited by Lavie Tidhar and Jared Shurin.
Join us on Instagram @shelfiesplease.