Pretty well all authors have a boasting shelf (though, of course, we don't call it that) - the shelf at home with a copy of our book(s) on. Preferably on display to the world. I'm rather chuffed as mine has just filled shelf four. Of course the purist might moan that surely lots of these are the same book. But I think it's legitimate to include translations, different formats (e.g. hardback and paperback), new editions with totally different covers and ARCs. It might seem like self-indulgence, and it probably is. But I think it's something more, which is why I'm respectfully asking you not to disrespect it. Often, writing a book is a bit of a damp squib of an experience. A new author might think that once the book is published they will see it in all the bookshops, and reviewed in all the important newspapers and such, while in reality it's pretty common that a book comes out and... nothing much happens. So the physical reality of the boasting shelf,...

I've always been one of those fussy people who keeps their books in neat alphabetical order by author. It just seems right somehow. But I've made the accidental discovery that a disordered bookshelf can be a fun bookshelf. When we moved into the new house, the priority was to get rid of boxes, rather than be too careful about what went where, and though I'd got rid of about 1/3 of my books before moving, there were still many more boxes of books than anything else. So to get things moving, I just threw things on the shelf any old how. And somehow, I rather like the sense of danger from never quite knowing which book you are going to lay your hand on next. I've already rediscovered the Sherlock Holmes short stories, something I probably wouldn't have dug out of the alphabetized shelves, but that leapt out at me from the random collection. I don't know if it will last, but for the moment I'm going to keep it this way. I'm embracing the dangerous bookshelf.