The Shelf
by Diane · 18 June 2026 · Biography & Memoir
Divorce 2011 — dividing the books was complicated. 43 books remain that are entirely Diane's: because he never read them. They represent the person inside the marriage the marriage didn't reach. She takes that as a good sign, though not entirely sure for what.
When my marriage ended in 2011 we divided the books, which sounds simple and wasn't. My ex-husband and I had spent fourteen years accumulating books in a way that made them impossible to separate cleanly — his were on my shelves, mine were in boxes from his move before we met, some were gifts we'd given each other. We did our best. I took what I'd read that he hadn't. He took what he'd read that I hadn't. Everything we'd both read we had to negotiate.
What I ended up with: forty-three books on a shelf in my bedroom that are entirely mine in a way nothing else in that apartment was. Not because he never touched them but because he never read them. They represent the person I was inside the marriage that the marriage didn't reach. I take that as a good sign, though I'm not entirely sure for what.
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