Culture

My Library with Isabella Burley

Since launching in September 2020, Isabella Burley’s rare book dealership, Climax, has become a go-to online store for the curious and curatorially-minded. Here, she recommends her favourite reads.

By Carmen Hall

27 March 2021
T

he home of Isabella Burley is the perfect apartment for one; it has the tidy but ‘in-use’ effortlessness that art students the world over only dare to dream of. White, with a birchwood table and a medley of kitchen tools and artifacts which blur the lines between art and fashion, the most prominent feature in Burley’s open-plan living room is, nevertheless, books – stapled, bound, or otherwise – in every nook and cranny.

Known for becoming Dazed’s Editor-in-Chief at the age of 24, Burley stepped down earlier this year to work on independent projects, including her very own cult bookstore.

One end of Burley’s table is covered with essays, expelled from her home printer as well as Japanese Magic pens, an open laptop and a sea of post-it notes. The other end is where Burley has set up her production line, using materials she stores in her dishwasher. The wire drawers (there’s space for 20 plates), are comically stuffed with bubble wrap and tapes. Her bookstore, named Climax after the cult‘80s fashion label, is an amalgamation of vintage erotica and other sorts of collection-worthy printed matter.

“Japanese photobooks always have the best covers. They are my favourite thing to discover for Climax.”

I’m currently reading... Eileen Myles’s book of poetry Evolution, purchased from one of my favourite independent bookstores, Burning House Books.

The first book I remember picking up... Is probably a strange German book (my mum’s from the Black Forest), or The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

My favourite book of all time... Is Cookie Mueller’s Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black or Hilton Als’s White Girls.

I don’t often give my books away... I’m very precious about my books – an occupational hazard if you own a bookstore – but I do enjoy lending them to friends. If I do want to give anything away, I donate them to Oxfam Books in Islington (I’ve been volunteering there for a few years).

The book I’d recommend for someone who’s into music... Richard Hell’s The Toilet Paper Columns, his complete columns written in New York between 2004 and 2006 for The Toilet Paper, Noel Black's now defunct Colorado Springs Monthly. Hell writes on everything from spirituality, 'high art sex', Patti Smith, Joe Strummer and Chloë Sevigny. They are so fun.

If you’re going through a break-up, you should read... Not that this is especially good for someone going through a break-up, but I remember my dad giving me a copy of Ted Hughes’s Birthday Letters around the time I was recovering from a big break-up. But probably, I would recommend something really fun and weird like anything by Kathy Acker.

If times are tough, try... Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers.

My perfect holiday read is... An unconventional choice but my favourite memory of holiday reading was devouring Charlie Fox’s This Young Monster while I was in Miami.

If you’re into food I’d recommend... An amazing cookbook from Dimes restaurant in New York, Emotional Eating. I just got a copy over from Karma, a gallery in New York and it’s so good.

The poetry collection I live for... Is Wilson Oryema’s Wait.

If you want a book that looks good... I think Japanese photobooks always have the best covers. They are my favourite thing to discover for Climax.

The last person to recommend a book to me... Was my wonderful friend and colleague Claire, who gave me Gary Indiana’s Tiny Fish That Only Want to Kiss for my birthday last year. I finally started reading it over the summer when my boyfriend's car broke down and we spent five hours in the car reading – it was very cute.

If you looked on my shelves right now you’d see... Nobuyoshi Araki’s first book Oh Nippon! (1971), some old Richard Kern VHS tapes, Cosey Fanni Tutti’s hot pink VHS, A Study in Scarlet; a pile of Madame in a World of Fantasy and a stack of the new Martine Syms’s books we just got at Climax, called Shame Space.

I keep my bookshelves... Fairly organised – I have to because of Climax (so I know where stock is at all times) – but I enjoy the chaos. A good bookshelf should never be too organised.

The books I re-read most regularly are... Charlie Fox’s This Young Monster and Kathy Acker’s New York in 1979.

The Short Stack

Former editor and cult bookstore owner Isabella Burley gives the lowdown on her reading habits and recommends her favoured fiction.

By Carmen Hall

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