The shelves in my office would protest if given a voice. Pictures and trinkets have disappeared as books accumulate. Literary fiction, memoir, pop fiction, travel guides, technology manuals pile in somewhat alphabetic order. Then there is a sneaky library gathering on the Kindle, a quiet little luxury of titles building with ‘one click’ ease. So what’s on the top of the reading list today?

Book club just finished The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, the 2011 Booker Prize winner. Kudos for book club members because this middle-age man angst story might not have popped up on my reading list. Opposite end of the writing world, twenty-five-year-old Tea Obreht’s Tiger’s Wife is the current book open on Kindle. Not the deepest writing, but good to be reading work by the new generation.

In acknowledgement that being a writer doesn’t stop with turning off the computer after completing a wonderful paragraph (or sentence), I have to be honest that one shelf has grown heavy with a few “Dummies” books related to technology as well as more serious work on related topics. Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21^st Century Writer by Jeff Vandermeer can help bring the blur of blogs, websites and social media from something daunting to more of a walk through a slightly foggy world. My social media friend’s Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide and Groundswell moved on and off that shelf for a few weeks.

One day soon the shelves will have to be re-organized (again). Some books will be shuffled to shelves in the guest room, others to the basement, a bag or two will go to the used bookstore. For a few months there will be order and space in that area of my office. One day soon when writing or the work of a writer don’t claim every hour.