Book collections are my pornography. I'm not interested in individual titles—anyone can pretend they're reading Zadie Smith. What makes my pulse race is the ways in which people arrange their books.

The Women's Review of Books, July/August 2020

Book collections are my pornography. I'm not interested in individual titles—anyone can pretend they're reading Zadie Smith. What makes my pulse race is the ways in which people arrange their books. The care of the arrangement reveals the depth of the book collector as well as the ineffable character of the books themselves. During this pandemic, we now have the ability to scan—without the slightest shame—the book collections of Cate Blanchett, Stacey Abrams, and Prince Charles along with those of public health experts, political analysts, and social justice advocates. The visibility of print books has arrived at just the right time. With a president whose favorite books are the ones ghostwritten for him and is a self-proclaimed genius, our souls need to see books more than ever before.



Continue reading at The Women's Review of Books.