From selfies to shelfies

WORDS Zama Nkosi

Selfies are so last year! Our friends at MB Life asked five local personalities to share their shelfies – pictorial peeks at their bookshelves.

Milisuthando Bongela, blogger

I don’t have as impressive a bookshelf as I would like, but it’s growing slowly and I’ve read all the books on it. My bookshelf came with my place; it’s embedded in the wall. My favourite place to read is in bed, when I wake up or just before I go to sleep. Three of my favourite books on my shelf are Frontiers: The Epic Creation of South Africa and the Tragedy of the Xhosa People by Noel Mostert – I call it the book that woke me up, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – the book that encouraged me to tell stories, and The Prophet by Khalil Gibran – the book I live by.

Zubz, musician and writer

My bookshelf is one of my favourite pieces of furniture in my house. It was custom-made to fit my wall and is a distressed-looking dusty green. It’s a prominent piece because my girlfriend and I are writers, and books occupy a big part of our lives. My favourite place to read is in my bedroom or curled up on the couch. I recently bought two Chinua Achebe books that I felt were essential to any African literature collection. I’m also big on Malcolm Gladwell’s books for inspiration. There’s also a lot of Toni Morrison on our bookshelf because my girlfriend is a huge fan and swears I’m missing out by not having read her books.

Angie Batis, co-owner of Wolves Café in Jozi, with her husband Shane Durrant, from Desmond and the Tutus

Shane and I designed our bookshelf and had a carpenter make it up for us. We wanted something with loads of big compartments because I love collecting things and wanted lots of nice little spaces to display them. My favourite place to read is on the porch of Shane’s mom’s holiday cottage in Riet River in the Eastern Cape. It’s so quiet and there are day beds so when it rains you get a blanket and some sweet tea and then it’s just you, your book and the sea in the background. It’s amazing. Paul Auster was one of the first authors I fell in love with. The first book of his I read was The New York Trilogy and his style of story-telling had me hooked from day one. He’s definitely worth checking out.

Nzinga Qunta, founder of JUCYAfrica.com and newscaster on ANN7

My bookshelf is from my varsity days – I just wandered into a shop and bought the first one I saw. I should probably get a new one since my place is heaving with books. I like to read on the couch or in bed; somewhere quiet where I can disappear into the places the book takes me. One of my favourite books is Eight Days in September by Frank Chikane. It was fascinating to read about South Africa’s biggest political story by a person who was involved. Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon is another favourite – she’s incredible at capturing emotion and weaving a beautiful story. Roots by Alex Haley taught me about the slave trade in a manner that portrayed how evil it was and how its effects still linger.

Tehn Diamond, rapper

There is no story behind my bookshelf. It’s quite literally a shelf in my closet. I keep my little treasures tucked away safely right at the back. My best reading place is in the bathtub – and I use my iPad. One of my favourite books include The Pleasures Of The Damned, the definitive collection of Charles Bukowski’s poems. It helped me get through a rough patch earlier this year. I flicked through a couple pages and landed on a poem called “The Harder You Try”, which ended with “… if there is light, it will find you”. Once I read that, a huge weight was lifted from my soul. I could breathe again, I was content to just be and wait patiently for whatever would come next. Another favourite is Empire State of Mind by Zack O’Malley Greenburg. It’s a really dope behind-the-scenes look at the business moves of one of my music industry heroes, Jay Z. I’m a massive fan of both Jay Z the musician and Jay Z the businessman, so this book was Christmas twice over.

Click here to do our shelfie quiz. We’ve put together a fun pop quiz to help you figure out what shelfie you are and have decor ideas for each personality type. When you’re done, snap a shelfie in your home and send it to us to stand the chance of winning a prize. 

Originally published on MB Life.