Welcome to The Unfinished Bookshelf

The Unfinished Bookshelf was once a blog, then became a sort of Bookstagram and, because, quite frankly, I’m too tired to learn BookTok, we’re here.

I’m Michelle Gately; I tell stories as a professional writer most days and read them for fun as an utterly addicted bookworm.

Most things I write involve some type of strategy, tight word counts and other restrictions. I was craving something which needed almost none of that. So this is it: a place where we can talk about what we’re reading, the themes in those books and our love of getting lost in literature. 

I really don’t know exactly what this will look like yet. I can’t promise to send emails every week just yet (I’ll be aiming for a gentle fortnightly pace). I don’t know if I’ll feel the pressure to set up a shot just right so I can share a picture of the book/s I’m chatting about. I don’t think I’ll revive Instagram because it’s really the last place I want to be.

If you want some more traditional book recommendations (where I will literally just say why you should read a book), then you could listen to the podcast I co-host, Better Words. We chat with authors about their writing and publishing journey, too – it’s pretty inspiring stuff. We also share extra recommendations for things to watch/listen to/read each month

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m getting back to my book.

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The books I can't stop thinking about, and why you should read them too.

People

Writing words and selling stories for a living. Reading stories and talking about them for fun. One half of Better Words Podcast. I love a hardback, listen to way too many true crime podcasts and my tea of choice is Yorkshire.