The one and only Dolly Parton shows us her books! The pop culture icon shares her all-time favorite titles and the personal mementos she keeps on her shelves, including a photo of her rarely-seen husband, Carl.
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00:00 If you've got a good book and you're into a good story, you're going to have it with
00:03 you wherever you are.
00:04 If you get a chance to even go in the bathroom and read another chapter or read a few lines
00:09 just to kind of keep the story going, you'll find the time to read.
00:13 Hi there, this is Dolly Parton and I want to give Marie Claire a peek into my personal
00:20 library.
00:22 So welcome to Shelf Portrait.
00:28 So this is me trying to knock stuff off my shelves because I kind of wanted to show some
00:32 of the things that are on my shelf.
00:34 Of course I've got a picture of my mom, dad, and me.
00:37 We've got my husband Carl and my little dog Popeye from years ago.
00:43 And of course this special little piano is like a family heirloom.
00:46 It really plays.
00:47 I may write a song on that.
00:50 But anyhow, these are just little ornaments and stuff that are some of my favorite books
00:54 that I've scattered around.
00:55 Seriously, I have hundreds and hundreds of books.
00:58 I give books away, but it's so hard for me to give my books away.
01:01 I just kind of like get selfish and hang on to them, especially ones that I love.
01:07 I just go back and re-read them.
01:09 Here's a special book my sister Willardine wrote.
01:12 It's called In the Shadow of a Song.
01:14 And it's a lot about our people too.
01:16 So a lot of us write.
01:17 I'm not the only creative person in this family.
01:20 So I really love this little book and I thought, "Well, I'll show that on my shelf."
01:25 So anyhow, these are just fun little things.
01:27 Nothing major.
01:28 I'm pretty simple.
01:34 This book is called Oral History.
01:37 It is by my favorite Southern writer, Lee Smith.
01:41 And this book really hits home to me because it's really about Southern people.
01:47 It's a wonderful story about families and love and romance and just the hard times that
01:52 people go through.
01:53 Lee Smith just tells a story in such a way that it just goes plum deep into my soul and
01:59 into my heart.
02:00 And I just love her.
02:01 And so if you have not read Lee Smith, you better get after it.
02:10 People say, "What's the book that you have read more than any other?"
02:13 Well, it would definitely have to be this.
02:15 My mom started reading this to us before we had books in our house.
02:20 This is the Holy Bible, the King James Version.
02:24 Of course, I love the Old Testament and all those stories as well.
02:27 But there's a lot of wisdom in here.
02:29 I find a lot of strength and a lot of hope in reading the Bible.
02:33 There's just something about the fact that it always seemed to anchor Mama.
02:37 She always seemed to anchor us.
02:39 So I know that there's a lot of wisdom in here that I can always draw from.
02:43 So there's stuff that I look in here.
02:45 I write a lot of songs from verses I find in the Bible.
02:48 Even the Psalms, I think, are beautiful.
02:50 I'm not trying to promote religion to anybody.
02:52 They ask me what are the books that I've read and that are meaningful to me.
02:56 And this most definitely is.
03:00 I bet you know this little book, right?
03:03 It's The Little Engine That Could.
03:05 This is by Waddy Piper.
03:06 And this is the first book in the Imagination Library, my program where we give books to
03:11 children.
03:12 But this was also my favorite book when I was growing up.
03:16 And it still is.
03:18 And I often tell people there's a lot of wisdom in this little book.
03:21 And I always say that I am a little engine that did.
03:25 So this is a good book for everybody and anybody.
03:28 And it just seems to last forever.
03:30 And it's always on my shelf.
03:32 My little nieces and nephews always say, "Hey, go read this book."
03:35 They love it.
03:36 Well, people ask me a lot if I've ever written a book.
03:40 Well, yes, I have.
03:41 I've written several books.
03:42 I've written a book called I Am a Rainbow.
03:46 It's really about the moods of children and kind of explaining it's okay to feel anger,
03:52 you know, the red.
03:53 And I kind of rhyme it all up.
03:54 I've written a book called My Life and Other Unfinished Business that's several years old.
03:59 So I do love to write.
04:00 And I do have now a brand new book.
04:03 It's called Song Teller, My Life in Lyrics.
04:06 And it really kind of tells stories, shows pictures of why and when I wrote the songs,
04:12 what I was feeling when I wrote all the story songs, because I consider myself more than
04:17 anything a songwriter.
04:18 And I really love to tell stories because I love to read.
04:23 So I thought Song Teller was a good title for a book for me.
04:27 So I hope to continue writing more books.
04:29 And I know for a fact I'll be reading more books.
04:32 Well, now this book, I bet you millions of people know.
04:36 This is The Grapes of Wrath.
04:37 And of course, who doesn't love John Steinbeck and all the wonderful things that he's written?
04:41 And I started reading this again.
04:44 I probably read this book three times in my life.
04:47 But with all the craziness going on in the past year and all the hard times that people
04:50 are having, I started kind of reading again a lot of the old classics.
04:55 And this is one I picked up because I relate to the hard work and the poor people and the
05:00 struggles and the times.
05:01 But I just love this book.
05:03 And there's just so much wisdom and so much feeling, so much heart and soul in books like
05:09 this.
05:10 I even like the old classics, really.
05:12 Don't you agree?
05:16 When I want to know about books, I contact my sisters.
05:20 I say, "Have you read a good book lately?"
05:22 "Yeah, I've been saving you some.
05:23 I've been saving you some."
05:25 So friends and family, we kind of swap books back and forth.
05:29 And I also like to read all the books on the New York Times Bestseller List.
05:33 I also like to go through Oprah's Book Club, Reese Witherspoon's, and Jenna Bush Hager's
05:39 Club.
05:40 So there's a lot of good books out there.
05:43 And usually the kind that just kind of word of mouth are the ones that are the best.
05:48 Do you know Adriana Treghiani?
05:52 She's another one of my favorite writers.
05:55 She's Italian.
05:56 She lives in the city, but she grew up in Cumberland Gap in the South.
06:01 And this Big Stone Gap, I just love this.
06:03 But she writes so many wonderful things.
06:05 Some of them are about the South.
06:07 Some of them are not.
06:08 She's really an all-around kind of writer.
06:10 But she's a wonderful, wonderful writer.
06:12 And anytime she puts a book out, I just love it.
06:14 But this book is really a special one, and I think you will love that.
06:18 Well people ask me if I would do e-reader or hardcover.
06:22 Well, I'm going to always pick a paperback book or a paper book, because I just love
06:28 the feel of books.
06:29 I love the smell of books.
06:30 I love the smell of that ink.
06:32 I just love physically to touch a book.
06:35 So even though I do sometimes when I'm flying, I'll read something online or whatever.
06:41 But I really think the Kindle don't stand up like a good, hard book.
06:46 Well, thank you for joining us.
06:54 And don't forget to subscribe to Marie Claire.
06:57 And don't forget to read a book, especially one of mine.
07:00 Especially Songteller, My Life in Lyrics.
07:04 Thank you.
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