For “Perfect Couple” author Elin Hilderbrand, the organization of the book is optional

NANTUCKET, Mass. – “I’m trying to think how bored I would have to be if I said, ‘I’m going to organize my bookshelves now,’” Elin Hilderbrand told me as we viewed the floor-to-ceiling collection in the hallway of her Nantucket home last month. “Maybe if there was a snowstorm for five days and I had absolutely nothing else to do?”

Hilderbrand has been busy. This year, she not only published her 30th book, “Swan Song,” but wrapped up her role as executive producer of “The Perfect Couple,” the Netflix limited series based on her novel of the same name. This included serving as a point of contact for all things Nantucket: helping with locations and other details of life on this tony island. “The most important thing to me was that Nantucket was done correctly,” Hilderbrand said. “I was fully involved.”

But this year was only slightly more hectic than the past twenty years. Since 2000, Hilderbrand has published about one novel a year, while also raising three children (the eldest is now 24). Although she has stopped writing her Nantucket series, her days remain full: she and her 19-year-old daughter Shelby are working on a new book series set at a boarding school; she co-hosts a podcast and makes regular appearances at local bookstores; she follows a strenuous daily exercise regimen and keeps busy with all the tasks that motherhood entails. (During our interview, she stepped out to take her son to work.)

Regardless of the time constraints, Hilderbrand loves her orderly disorder. To be clear: her books are not scattered around in a messy manner. They are filed into categories: favorites, cookbooks, paperbacks, foreign editions of her novels and so on. But within these groupings you might find a book by Toni Morrison next to a book by Virginia Woolf and, nearby, “Eat, Pray, Love.”

“I like that the books are placed a bit haphazardly. They are in an order that I understand. No one else needs to understand,” she told me. “The books are a mixture of my life. The important thing is that, with few exceptions, you could pick a book and I could tell you where I was and what was happening in my life when I read it.

Standing in front of the shelves in her living room, we put that to the test: When she saw Stephen Carter’s novel “The Emperor of Ocean Park,” she recalled the childhood of her son Dawson, who was born the year it was published. Ian McEwan’s row of books reminded her of her son Maxx’s childhood. A copy of Stephanie Land’s “Maid” was reminiscent of a trip to San Francisco; Anne Enright’s ‘The Forgotten Waltz’, a particularly cold winter in New England.

Shelf with favorites

Hilderbrand bought this airy shingle-style home in 2015, after her divorce. During that life change, many books were eradicated, she says, but her collection remains extensive and personal. Each of the hundreds of books on the shelves of her first-floor hallway contains an anecdote. For example, there’s a first edition of JD Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey,” a gift from her ex-husband for her 50th birthday and her favorite book. Like many Gen Xers, Hilderbrand read it in high school, and it stuck with her. “I remember thinking, I’ll never read a book I love as much as this,” she said, putting the book back on the shelf face out. Among the other beloved books next to it, listed in no particular order: Jane Smiley’s “Moo,” Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History,” Richard Russo’s “Straight Man,” Jonathan Franzen’s “The Corrections,” Ellen Gilchrist’s “Starcarbon,” Amity Gage’s “Sea Wife’, ‘May We Be Forgiven’ by AM Homes, ‘Every Last One’ by Anna Quindlen and two books by Kate Atkinson: ‘A God in Ruins’ and ‘Life After Life’.

If the shelf were longer, it could also house other books elsewhere in the house that she associates with formative periods in her life: “Sex, Art, and American Culture,” by Camille Paglia, which she read as a student at the John Hopkins; “Spartina,” by John Casey, a professor of hers at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop; “Bright Lights, Big City” by Jay McInerney, which she read while living in New York, working in publishing and then as a teacher.

Beloved cookbooks

Hilderbrand loves cooking, but she doesn’t have any cookbooks in the kitchen. She has too many. These books are what you would call loved: torn, tattered, stained. Hilderbrand’s copy of the 1980s gastronomic bible, ‘The Silver Palate Cookbook’, is particularly badly damaged. “Look at this thing!” she said, holding the pieces in her hands. “That’s how much I loved this book.”

As Hilderbrand became more skilled, her tastes evolved towards Martha Stewart and Ina Garten. When she moved to Nantucket in the mid-1990s, Hilderbrand went everything in on the spot. She and a friend took cooking classes from a local chef, Sarah Leah Chase, who influenced not only Hilderbrand’s cooking but also her writing. Chase’s “Nantucket Open-House Cookbook” (1987) makes a cameo in Hilderbrand’s novel “28 Summers.” (For anyone who hasn’t read Hilderbrand, her novels are full of meal descriptions, restaurant names, and sometimes recipes.) As she turned the pages of Chase’s book, Hilderbrand talked about the “classic Nantucket” recipes, like sausage-and-brioche. and scallops. Of course, she also has a copy of ‘The Preppy Cookbook’ by Christine Nunn. “This is so on-brand,” she said as she searched the pages for the recipe for the Pinecone Cheese Ball that she said went viral after she featured it in her book “Christmas on Nantucket” (2016). It’s essentially a pinecone-shaped blob of soft cheese, studded with salted almonds.

In the study

Hilderbrand does not write in her study. Perhaps it’s not surprising that the author known as the “Queen of Beach Reading” typically writes her books on the beach, next to her pool, or in the kitchen or living room—by hand, on notepads. (After typing them into her computer, she keeps her handwritten drafts in drawers.) No, the centerpiece of the study is not a desk but a Peloton bike. Hilderbrand’s workout routine is essential to her work. “It creates discipline in my time,” she explained, “and moving my body increases my creativity.”

The books on the shelves here are mainly paperbacks, and their authors are a culmination of literary stars from the 1980s, 1990s and beyond – Laurie Colwin, Jayne Anne Phillips, Russell Banks, Toni Morrison, Andre Dubus, Anne Tyler, Susan Minot, Ethan Canin, Mona Simpson, Michael Chabon. Also: Philip Roth. She picked “Goodbye, Columbus” from its spot and began reading his description of fruit in the refrigerator. “I channeled that when I wrote about fruit in ‘Hotel Nantucket,’” she said.

Memories and memories

Hilderbrand is not particularly sentimental, but her shelves are peppered with memories: a 1970s photo of her and her siblings with their father, who died when Hilderbrand was 16; several Bibles, including one in a paper bag with her scribbles on it; the ball she used to throw out a ceremonial first pitch before a Yankees game in 2016 (she grew up a Phillies fan and now cheers for the Red Sox); a framed photo of her children, a gift from her nanny when Hilderbrand was treated for breast cancer in 2014 (“If someone asks, what do you get someone who has cancer? You should give him a framed photo of his children. I was so touched by this.”); a Hunter S. Thompson quote embroidered by a college friend; three Nantucket baskets from her wedding; an “emergency bottle” of champagne.

Hilderbrand is running out of space. She looked at the bottom shelf, where unread books demanded her attention. She is considering donating them. “If I had time,” she said, “I would throw away my books rather than rearrange them.” Next: her locker, where she keeps thousands of copies of her own novels.

‘I want to take them to a women’s prison. That would be my rainy day project.