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On the Writer’s Shelf with Anna P.
For writers, a bookshelf is more than just storage: it’s a glimpse into who they are and how they interact with their books. In this series, we step into the home libraries of writers, exploring their shelves, collections, and distinct aesthetics
Anna P., indie romance novelist
Location: Chennai
Collection: 400+
“I’ve gone from having books on the floor getting drenched by rain, to having them sealed inside a cupboard.”
Anna P. has used storytelling to keep herself entertained ever since she was a child. After completing her Master’s in Creative Writing from the UK, she had stints as a writer at Rolling Stone India and Sony Music before a brief detour into the big bad world of advertising in Bombay. Now, she’s come full circle, writing romance novels with “heart + heat,” as she describes it, filled with diverse, relatable characters.
Like many of us who grew up on Disney movies, Anna would love the kind of library from the 1991 film Beauty and the Beast: floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, with a rolling ladder. In reality, Anna has tucked her 400-strong collection of books across a set of open and closed shelves in her Chennai home.
On Her Fully-fiction Collection
Anna loves fiction, and her collection reflects it: a majority of her books fall into the romance genre, along with fantasy and young adult fantasy. “When I started collecting books, it was a lot of fantasy… that’s what I was reading when I started buying physical books. It went from fantasy paperbacks and hardbacks to romance novels now. It’s just how I’ve grown as a person and a reader.” While she doesn’t collect as many fantasy novels anymore, she has no plans to get rid of them: she still has her copies of The Lord Of The Rings series, “And these are books I will always keep with me,” she says.
On Her Wardrobe Converted into a Bookshelf
Her bookshelves have evolved over time and place. In Bombay, she didn’t have any bookshelves and stacked all of her books on the floor. But this system wasn’t exactly kind to her books. “They were stacked on the floor, under the windows, and the rain would come in and ruin the books.”
When she moved to Chennai, she finally got a bookshelf of her own. But living in a humid coastal city comes with its own set of challenges. Pages start to turn brown, and books develop a white residue because of the sea breeze. To combat the elements (and protect her books!) Anna converted one of her wardrobes into a bookshelf. She says, “I turned one of my built-in wardrobes into a closed bookshelf. I got the carpenter to cut holes in the top section and add glass, so I can see into it. All my books are well-protected. That’s how it’s evolved… I’ve gone from having books on the floor getting drenched by rain, to having them sealed inside a cupboard!”
Anna says this is as close to her “dream shelf” as possible. “I can see all the colours of the spines and everything else. It's primarily functionality, but it's also quite pretty when you look at it, and at the end of the day, that works!”
On Shelf Maintenance and the Magic of Vinegar
All bookshelves need love and care, whether they are closed, open, in a humid region or an arid one. And in India, the monsoons can be a miserable time for books and shelves. Anna says moving books around is the key to a tidy bookshelf, especially an open one. “Take the books off your shelf, clean them, and clean the shelves regularly. I would say do it once every couple of weeks. The more you clean, the less chance there is of dust and fungus building up.”
Anna also recommends using a microfibre cloth to wipe things down. But her trusted cleaning hack is something she discovered through her mom: vinegar mixed with soap solution. You dip a cloth into this liquid, squeeze it out properly, and wipe your shelves to get them clean and shiny. She says, “I’ve realised vinegar is a good solution to keep your house clean and fresh, and to clean things that you thought you wouldn’t be able to. You know how in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the bride’s father uses Windex as a cure-all? Vinegar is my mother’s version of Windex!”
On How She Arranges Her Books
There’s no colour-coding or genres bleeding into each other on Anna’s shelves. Being a self-published author, she uses that as her starting point when arranging her books. “I read a lot of other self-published authors, so they get prime position on my bookshelves. Whenever I'm looking at my bookshelves, they are the ones that I see first. And all the books that are released through traditional publishers, they're there, but they're not exactly in my line of sight.” She further breaks down this system by author, in order of the books they have published.
She also likes arranging books by height and size, so things stay organised and easy to reach and find. There’s one pet peeve she has related to book sizing, though. “I get really worked up when authors release a third or fourth book in a series, and it's a completely different size and style, because it throws my entire design and planning off!” Overall, she tries to keep books of the same height on the same shelf.
On Her Periodic Donation Drives
Anna has cut down on her book purchases of late, simply because she doesn’t have enough space. She periodically culls her collection and donates what she can to a local lending library. She waits until there are enough books to send across—in her previous donation drive, she gave away six cartons. There are no hard and fast rules about what she retains or when she donates. “I don’t have a schedule as such. When I finish reading certain books, and I know I will not re-read them, I give them away.”
The Oldest and Newest Books on Anna’s Shelf
For someone who reads primarily fantasy and romance, Anna’s oldest book may come as a surprise: William Golding’s haunting allegorical novel Lord of The Flies, acquired sometime during her middle school years. And the newest? “I just got a Native American author's thriller, it’s called Murder on the Red River, by Marcie R. Rendon, and it’s the first in a series (the Cash Blackbear mystery series). So that's my latest purchase!”
All images by Anna P.
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