In this installment of Shelf Portrait, Christina Najjar, better known online as Tinx, shares her favorite books and authors—and as a former English major, the list includes plenty of classics from Shakespeare to Hemingway.
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00:00Hi Marie Claire, I'm Tinks and welcome to a little look inside my personal library aka shelf portrait.
00:11I love to read, I always have. I identified with Belle the Disney Princess when I was little because I was jealous of her book collection, her library.
00:20And also really the fact that she was able to rehabilitate such a difficult man but that's a story for another time.
00:26Here are some of my favorite books.
00:28Okay, Diane von Furstenberg, one of my greatest inspirations, her memoir, The Woman I Wanted to Be.
00:33I absolutely adore this book. It gave me so much practical advice about life and I just really relate to her.
00:43She's powerful, she's strong, but she views femininity as one of her key strengths.
00:48And she just had such an amazing life with so many different chapters. Highly, highly recommend it.
00:53I love this memoir.
00:55I was actually an English major at Stanford and The Sun Also Rises is one of my favorite, favorite books by Hemingway, of course.
01:02This one, it looks like I actually sold this one from the Stanford library.
01:06So I apologize about that, but I just couldn't part with it.
01:09Oh, it's all annotated, all my notes from college.
01:12My favorite line is, they're talking about Brett Ashley.
01:15She's the main female protagonist in the book and he's describing her and he says she was built like the hull of a racing yacht.
01:22And like, what a way to be described.
01:24Like, please don't describe me any way unless you're going to describe me like the hull of a racing yacht.
01:29So good job Hemingway on that one.
01:31This book, If in Doubt, Wash Your Hair by Anya Hindmarch. Hindmarch? I don't know.
01:37She makes the amazing handbags too.
01:39And my best friend in London recommended this book because I love giving advice.
01:44And this is like the best book where you can get advice.
01:47It is just such practical advice about being a woman, running a business, having a family.
01:51I laughed, I cried.
01:53I reread this about once a year because it just, it really, really helps me feel connected to all womankind.
01:59Dramatic, I know.
02:01Robert Greene, The Daily Laws. Robert Greene is amazing.
02:04If you're wondering how I'm surviving in the entertainment industry as a woman, it's Robert Greene, okay?
02:11He has so many good tips on how to deal with and manipulate people.
02:16And I love him for that.
02:18All of his books are great, but this is probably my favorite.
02:20It's a really, really good read, especially if you want to understand more about how the world works.
02:26And finally, I want to talk about another favorite book of mine.
02:32My book, The Shift, which is really a guidebook to self-esteem.
02:36It's a collection of my misadventures in my twenties.
02:41I just think it's so important for all women to know their worth when they go into the dating world.
02:47It's something that I really wish I had when I was younger.
02:49In my twenties, I was constantly seeking validation from men.
02:53And that ended up being really boring and really tiresome and really stressful.
02:57And dating should be none of those things.
02:59Dating should be an era of self-discovery.
03:02So it's a lot about dating, but it's also how to be a good friend, how to have better body image, and so much more.
03:11I would say I love memoirs.
03:14I think that they're so helpful to read.
03:17And that's where I get so much of my advice from is stories from especially women of how they've managed their life.
03:25And, you know, what's worked, what hasn't worked.
03:28I read a lot of memoirs and they make me feel very comforted.
03:31I think that me, no, I'm just kidding.
03:35I have too many favorite authors to count.
03:37I would say, gosh, I love Palanek.
03:42I love Bret Easton Ellis.
03:44I love Hemingway, but all time favorite author would probably be Shakespeare.
03:49I grew up in London learning about Shakespeare, going to a lot of Shakespeare plays and he's really just the go.
03:55The last time that I stayed up all night to finish a book was reading Andy Cohen's latest book, The Daddy Diaries.
04:02I am such a big Andy Cohen fan and his books are so funny and they just make me feel very warm inside.
04:09He has just such an exciting life and I just couldn't put his last book down.
04:12So I stayed up pretty late.
04:13My favorite childhood books were probably the American Girl books that I know a lot of us love.
04:20They were all really depressing when you think back, like literally all of them were going through a lot.
04:25But for some reason, I really enjoyed those books, especially the ones about Samantha.
04:29I love Samantha.
04:30And like Grand Mary, I think her name was, she was, she was a bad bitch.
04:34There's a book called The Body Keeps Score and it's an amazing book and I have full intention to finish it.
04:42It's just very, very long.
04:44It's more textbooky than booky, but I am learning a lot, but it's taken me like a really long time to get through like this much.
04:52It's a work in progress.
04:53So my friend, Nell Diamond is actually an avid reader.
04:57She started Hill House, but she just reads voraciously as well.
05:01I don't know how she has time because she has three kids as well, but I really recommend following her on Instagram.
05:06She has great book recommendations that are always awesome.
05:09Yes.
05:10I love making notes.
05:11I will often make notes in my phone because I love to discuss books that I'm reading with my friends or with on my podcast or my radio show.
05:18So I do, I do like to take notes.
05:20This is the English major in me.
05:22Book that I would love to see turned into a movie is A Little Life.
05:25I'm sure a lot of us want to see that turn into a movie.
05:28I'm sure we would all be crying for the entire movie, but I think it would be so good.
05:32And I think that we should cast Alex Skarsgård in that movie.
05:35Tell me your thoughts.
05:36Oh gosh.
05:37So many.
05:38Adam Sandler.
05:39I would love to read his memoir.
05:41He's had such an interesting and amazing life.
05:43I would just love to hear about the ins and outs of it.
05:46I absolutely love to read in bed and like snuggle up.
05:49I also feel like I have better dreams, better quality dreams when I read right before I sleep.
05:53Probably Michelle Obama.
05:55I mean, imagine if Michelle Obama was like reading your bedtime story.
05:58That would be insane.
06:00I would be like too excited to go to sleep.
06:02I'd be like, Michelle, we have to stay up all night talking.
06:05So Michelle.
06:08I'm very excited.
06:09My first book ever.
06:11I'm so proud to have it up on this shelf and I can't wait for you all to read it.