“A bookshelf isn’t an index — one of the many reasons why e-reading is so unsexy. Imagine a seduction; your bookshelves or their bookshelves are part of the foreplay, like music, food, talk. Our eyes run over bookshelves, not alphabetically or sequentially, because we’re looking to find old friends, memories from the past, and new pleasures. That’s the glory of a bookshelf. No one ever said, “Come up and see my Kindle Index.”

Bookshelves aren’t put together by algorithms either. Our own minds colliding with the minds of others is more exciting.

This tiny shelf of mine isn’t in order, isn’t orderly, and definitely isn’t definitive. It’s one of many walks I could take you on, when we meet.”

So says author Jeanette Winterson, who first became famous after “Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit,” her semi-autobiographical first book was published in 1985. She is a two-time Lambda Literary Award recipient, and was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire for her services to literature in 2006. Winterson’s latest, “Christmas Days” is out in paperback this November.

Below are Jeanette Winterson’s favorite books, available to purchase individually or as a set.