What's on your shelf? · Interview
What's on your shelf? A sample curator
Books, objects and personal favourites from the people behind our boards.
By The Butter editors · 27 Oct 2026
Sample interview. This is placeholder text while we line up our first real curator.
Each issue we ask one curator to show us what lives on their shelves — and why. This is a sample interview while we line up our first guest.
What's the first thing someone notices on your shelf?
Probably the spines — I arrange books by colour, which annoys everyone who wants to borrow one.
The book you give most often?
A short, funny novel. Big books feel like homework as a gift; a slim one feels like an invitation.
“I'd rather give a £6 paperback with a note inside than something expensive with no story.”
One object that isn't a book?
A small brass bookmark I was given years ago. It's in whatever I'm reading, so it's travelled everywhere.
The Weekly Spread
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