On the Writer’s Shelf with Nandini Nair

Nandini Nair, associate director New India Foundation and literary journalist

Location: Pune
 

Collection: Close to 1000
 

“I think a bookshelf is just the best wallpaper you can have."

One can say that Nandini Nair’s life revolves around books. She reads and writes for a living—as the former Books Editor at Open magazine, she’s reviewed dozens of books, interviewed leading authors from across the globe, and covered the biggest literature festivals. And now, as associate director at the New India Foundation (NIF), she works directly with writers and scholars who win the coveted NIF Fellowships.

She’s amassed an enviable library of nearly 1000 books spread over two floors in her airy bungalow in Pune that’s tucked away in a leafy corner of the city. Her books take up space all over the home, something she’s proud of. “I think what makes a house into a home is books and plants. I look into the books, my husband looks into the plants and that's the alchemy of the house.”

ON HER COLLECTION

“I’ve always grown up around books. My parents had a huge collection…I think many of my books are with them, many of their books are with me. I kind of like that cross-pollination!”

She’s moved around a lot since childhood, but it’s in the last 15-20 years that she’s moved with her own books, accumulated from her college days. As a book critic and literary journalist, she gets many free copies, which she considers a perk of the job. She says, “A lot of the collection is more recent books. And then some, of course, are books which I just enjoy.”

ON BUILDING HER STAIRCASE BOOKSHELF AND WRITING DESK

With a collection this large, multiple bookshelves around the home were a natural choice. “This is the first house with planned shelves because it's our house. A large library is great and I wouldn’t be against that, but I also think it’s nice to be surrounded by books.”

There are bookshelves in almost every room, and one was custom-made to double up as a bookshelf and a staircase railing: a “bannister bookshelf” of sorts. “We didn't want a normal stair railing, that's why we decided to build a bookshelf instead of a railing.”

Nandini’s husband Anoop likes to do a bit of carpentry in his free time and helped in the design and building of the shelves and the desk. The staircase shelf was designed by Anoop’s sister Pauravi Mahajan-Pawar, an architect. It began with eliminating the railing on one side of the staircase. They decided to integrate a bookshelf in that space that could function as storage and a subtle safety barrier. The shelf has three levels, carefully positioned so that anyone using the stairs still feels a sense of security on either side. And the gap at the top allows natural light from the living room to filter through to the staircase, reducing the need for artificial lighting during the day.

She has been working mostly from home for the past several years, and, given the nature of her job, she needed enough space to spread out her laptop, books, and other pages she’s working on. She decided on a really long desk. The upstairs study was long enough to accommodate a desk of this size, so Nandini’s husband Anoop got to work and made it himself. He chimes in, “The idea was to try and do something ourselves so we could design it as we wanted…because when you put some blood and sweat into it, you have a little more ownership towards it!” He also built the bookshelf in the guest room, from sheets of pine wood which he sanded and polished himself.

ON HOW SHE ARRANGES HER BOOKS

There’s no hard and fast division between genre, subject or author, but Nandini has a system which makes sense to her. Fiction is mostly upstairs, non-fiction downstairs. But she also arranges books based on their size and where they fit, irrespective of the genre. Case-in-point: her Tintin box set, which can only fit on the taller shelf downstairs.

But one strict no-no? The “colour cataloguing” technique. She laughs, “I judge people who arrange their shelves according to colour because I think that's the most trivial way you can arrange books! How do you find anything? I think I know where most of my books are!”

ON BALANCING AESTHETICS, AND PRACTICALITY

For Nandini, books also serve as decor. “I think a bookshelf is just the best wallpaper you can have, right? It’s what also makes your house a bit personal, because otherwise, houses can be fairly cookie cutter. A bookshelf tells you a lot about a person.” All her shelves have a story to tell, far beyond the books they hold. Artwork, plants, framed photographs, heirloom antiques, and tchotchkes from her travels are dotted between books. But Nandini also feels that a bookshelf shouldn’t be too curated or put-together. “I don’t want to be precious about it. Practicality trumps all else.”