It's All about the Books

It's All About the Books

“Always be "opportunity-ready" - The greatest door-opening opportunities often come in the form of objections. ”  ― Lisa Washington

This is not my room. But if it was, I probably would still need more bookshelf.

After I've badgered my brother to lug my 23kg bag up to my room and the customary comments about the fact that my hand luggage is full of clothes and the one he's carrying is all books, the first thing I do is ask myself a familiar question: 

How on earth am I'm going to renegotiate space on my bookshelves?

It's inevitable. I come home from university a few pounds of fat less, a few kilograms of books more, and since I'm not Harry Potter and I don't have a magical expanding trunk, there's a constant battle between where the stuff I bring back to London finds it's home. 

This time, perhaps spurred on by the fact that I've been reading up on my publishing houses as I apply for various work placements and pray that maybe one or two of them see some hint of potential, I decided to figure out what publishing houses fill my shelves. Do the Big Six dominate? Do their various imprints reflect themselves between my own literary choices? What about the independents? How many of them have crept into my hands? What about the vintage books: the classics I've inherited or those uncovered gems from Portobello Market? 

I started off with vague musings - a plethora of questions about what my book shelves tell me. But as I took them all down and rearranged them into their relevant groupings, I figured: why not turn it into an exercise in which you all can share? 

What writer or aspiring young publisher, like myself, hasn't had to go through the eye-opening, eye-wearying trawl of Penguin or Random House, trying to figure out exactly what makes an imprint distinct from the mothership? Who hasn't wanted a comprehensive, finger-tip guide to some of those book-brands that make applications to any company just slightly overwhelming? 

Now, I know there are way too many questions here for just one blog post so for the next few days, you're going to be privy to the intricacies of my book shelves. I'm going to go through publishing house by publishing house, looking each one and their imprints. By the end, you'll probably be able to see what sorts of things I read and where they come from - should be useful, should be fun, should be challenging. 

As usual though: it's all about the books. 

Je serai poète et toi poésie, 
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