The humble bookshelf

(Snooping around the home of Stefano Tonchi, editor of The New York Times Style Magazine via The Selby).

Scanning a friend's bookshelf always follows a similar pattern. You spy the hardbacks and the carefully packed in second hand peeling covers. Your head is tilted to one side as you respond to said friend who is making tea but your concentration (head still to one side) is on the book covers and the mass of title/ author/ title. You then think can I ask to borrow xyz book but you know you better not ask as you might never give it back which is the trademark of the annoying friend.

L & K used to crease my books, bend the spine and let them float in the bath. And then would hand them back to me recommending the tale that they had just read. Recipe books can be splashed with pasta sauce and the ingredients that are written on the page, but other books need to look unread (and unwashed) in my humble opinion.

p.s a new friend came to Flat 3 last year and questioned why I still had videos on my bookshelf. And why one of them was the film Iris. He had a point. Difficult to respond to why an alzheimer's Judi Dench film is on the bookshelf.