There’s nothing like a well-stocked library to enhance a home. Especially when that library has been outfitted with books chosen by some of the choosiest readers of all — the authors themselves. We recently caught a peek at the literary collections of a few contemporary novelists in Leah Price’s excellent and newly released Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books , but we admit that our library-lust wasn’t quite sated, and we had to go hunting for more. We’ve already shown you a choice selection of the libraries of the rich and famous, but here, inspired by Price’s book, we’re focusing on the libraries, studies, and carefully organized bookshelves of the authors themselves. Click through to see a few snapshots of the libraries of famous authors, and let us know which ones inspire you to curl up and read in the comments.
Gary Shteyngart in his library. Photo from Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books . Read more here.
William Faulkner’s library at Rowan Oak. Photo via.
Eudora Welty’s library in Jackson, Mississippi. Photo by Susana Raab.
The first floor library at the Mark Twain house. Photo by Jack E. Boucher.
Philip Pullman in his study. Photo from Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books . Read more here.
Anne Sexton in her library. Photo via.
Full disclosure: we’re not 100% sure that this is Joan Didion and John Dunne’s personal library. But we are 100% sure that that is Joan, John, and Quintana Roo hanging out in there, so we’re betting (and hoping) it is. Photo via.
James Russell Lowell in his home library in Massachusetts, late 1800s. Photo via.
Agatha Christie in her summer home in Devon, England. Photo via.
Norman Mailer’s apartment in Brooklyn Heights was basically one big library, obviously. Photos via The New York Times .
Geoff Dyer’s study. Photo via The Guardian .
Junot Díaz’s library. Photo from Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books . Read more here.
The library of Charles Dickens, as rendered via woodblock engraving and sepia ink on paper by Sir Samuel Luke Fildes, 1870. Image via.
Okay, we know this feels like cheating, but hey, Keith Richards is now the author of a much-acclaimed memoir, which makes him a legitimate writer in our book. Photo via.
The collection of Claire Messud and James Wood. Photo from Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books . Read more here.
Colm Tóibín’s library and workspace. Photo via.
W.B. Yeats in his library. Photo via.
Rudyard Kipling’s study in Naulakha. Photos via and via.
Toni Morrison’s Princeton library. Photo via.
John Updike in his study in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Photo via.