In this episode of "Shelf Portrait," comedian and host Lilly Singh gives Marie Claire a look at her eye-catching, topsy-turvy bookshelves filled with books by several of her favorite South Asian authors. And be sure to grab Singh's new book, Be a Triangle: How I Went from Being Lost to Getting My Life into Shape.
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00:00The best way to travel is through reading a book.
00:02Oh, that sounded really smart.
00:03I should put that on a t-shirt.
00:05Hi, I'm Lilly Singh, and I'm going to give Marie Claire
00:07a peek into my personal library.
00:09Check it out.
00:13Welcome to Shelf Portrait.
00:14Clever name.
00:15Very clever name.
00:16This is my tipsy, turvy bookshelf.
00:19It is behind every Zoom meeting I do.
00:20It is definitely the topic of all small talk
00:23during the beginning of Zoom meetings.
00:26And yes, it does.
00:27Let me answer your question.
00:28Yes, it does make me feel anxious.
00:30But I like the way the books look.
00:32I have a range of books.
00:33I try to organize them by size.
00:35It doesn't always work out that way.
00:37But a lot of my favorite books are here
00:38by a lot of people I look up to.
00:40For example, my good friend Rupi Kaur.
00:43I have her books throughout the house
00:44because they're so aesthetically pleasing.
00:46So they're like books, but also art,
00:48which is very, very cool.
00:49I have lots of selects from my book club, Lilly's Library.
00:52We have the first select, Tell Me How to Be.
00:54The second select, Dawa Shastri's Last Day.
00:57My good friend, Jay Shetty's book,
01:00I think is in multiple places around the house.
01:02That's a good thing about friends that write books.
01:04They send you 10 of them.
01:05And I'm like, now you're a centerpiece.
01:07Congratulations.
01:08We go all the way down here.
01:10And this is where I have just like,
01:12ooh, this is a really, really rad book.
01:15Bad Guys, DreamWorks animation movie is coming out.
01:17And this is a book on the making of that movie
01:20because I play a character.
01:21So it's all the development of the animation,
01:23which is really, really cool.
01:25And then we have some of the cool picture books.
01:27My friend, Inquisitive in the UK,
01:30illustrator, you're gonna get mad that I said that,
01:32illustrator, visual artist, artist.
01:36Very creative person, illustrated this book.
01:39It's bedtime stories and it's super, super dope as well.
01:42I have so many friends that do cool things.
01:45Priyanka Chopra Jonas, of course, the memoir.
01:47I have a lot of things like this.
01:49And then my favorite book of all time.
01:51So this is a true story.
01:52In school, when I was younger,
01:54I would get in trouble.
01:56Questionable teaching, if you ask me.
01:57I would get in trouble
01:58because I would always be reading Sophie Kinsella's books,
02:01the Shopaholic series.
02:02I was obsessed with them.
02:04And the teacher would always be like,
02:05Lily, stop reading and pay attention.
02:07I know, questionable teaching,
02:09but I love that entire series.
02:11I also have books kind of all over my house
02:14because I think books are really a way to express yourself.
02:18So on my coffee table, on my shelves around my house,
02:21pretty much in every nook and cranny,
02:23in the bathroom, there's books.
02:39One of the books that has impacted me the most
02:41out of any other book I've read
02:42is called The Four Agreements.
02:44In fact, my first therapist told me to read this book.
02:48Yep, we're getting straight into therapy.
02:50That's right, it's been what, how many seconds?
02:51Well, my therapist said, you know,
02:53every time I would be in sessions,
02:54she said, I really want you to read this book
02:55called The Four Agreements.
02:56And I really love just how straightforward it was.
02:59And it changed the way I thought about a lot of things.
03:01In fact, when I wrote my latest book,
03:04I really tried to channel
03:05just the straightforwardness of this book
03:07because I thought it said what it needed to say.
03:10It didn't say unnecessary things.
03:12It didn't try to be like, oh, I'm going to use big words
03:15and I'm going to make this sound artsy.
03:16They just said things the way things needed to be said.
03:18And I really, really admired that.
03:20So The Four Agreements, definitely recommend it.
03:22The next book that I would really, really recommend
03:25is by my good friend,
03:26my sister from another mister, Rupi Kaur.
03:29She is so, she's just so talented.
03:33Words cannot even do justice to how talented she is.
03:36She has two books.
03:37This one is The Sun and Her Flowers.
03:38What I love about Rupi's books is I know,
03:40because I know her personally,
03:41I know how involved she is with her books.
03:43So not only are her poems amazing
03:46and not only does she express things in a way
03:48where you're like, oh my God,
03:49this is how I felt,
03:50but I just could never put it into words.
03:52Like that, every page will be like,
03:54you are saying what's been in my soul all this time.
03:56And I never knew how to say it.
03:57But she also does the illustrations herself.
03:59And she also is very involved with picking the type of paper
04:03and the exact colors that she wants on the cover.
04:06So I appreciate that as an artist,
04:08she really is invested into every part of the book.
04:10I actually had the honor of launching her second book
04:14on stage with her and reading one of her poems.
04:16And it's just such a range.
04:17Some of them are sentimental.
04:18Some of them are a little spicy
04:20and some of them are vulnerable.
04:22And I think it's just such a powerful piece of work,
04:25especially as a South Asian woman.
04:26You know, there's a lot of things in her books
04:28that are taboo or things that we don't talk about enough.
04:31And I think it's a great step in the right direction.
04:33Next, we got Tell Me How To Be.
04:35So I started a book club called Lily's Library.
04:38And the goal of Lily's Library
04:40was to put a spotlight on South Asian authors
04:43and share South Asian stories with the world.
04:45Because I feel often South Asian creators
04:48are not given the credit they deserve.
04:49And so I want to put them on a pedestal
04:52and show people that universally South Asian stories
04:55can be enjoyable and should be recognized.
04:58And this was the very first select of Lily's Library.
05:01It is by Neil Patel.
05:02It's called Tell Me How To Be.
05:04It follows a mother and a son as they expose their secrets,
05:09deal with some of their trauma,
05:10and ultimately bond together.
05:12It is funny.
05:13It is emotional.
05:14And again, I think just talks about so many things
05:18that we don't see enough of.
05:19You know, I think this book
05:21is what I wish we would see on screen.
05:23But it's right here in this book.
05:24And Neil's such a great, great writer.
05:26I literally read this in a day and a half
05:28because I could not put it down.
05:31Next is Think Like A Monk.
05:33Look at this handsome guy.
05:35This is my good friend, Jay Shetty.
05:37One of the biggest blessings of my life
05:39is being friends with this man.
05:41So Jay used to be a monk.
05:42He was a monk for several, several years.
05:44And then he wrote this book
05:45with all the teachings he learned during that time.
05:48And he makes mindfulness so accessible.
05:51You know, these ideas that we think are so otherworldly
05:54and that we can't possibly do ourselves,
05:56he puts in this book
05:57and he takes you through his journey
05:59and he tells you stories and he gives you teachings.
06:01And this is just a life-changing book.
06:04And I always think about,
06:06when you think about things like life
06:07and what kind of person you wanna be,
06:09you have to be careful who you take advice from.
06:11And Jay is someone
06:12where you can confidently take advice from him
06:14because he's lived a life.
06:16And when you spend any time with him,
06:18you can tell that he's such a well-rounded,
06:21balanced, just a healthy individual.
06:23Honestly, that's what it is.
06:24He's healthy.
06:24So healthy.
06:26He's just so healthy.
06:27You should listen to Jay, Think Like A Monk.
06:29The last book I'll give a shout out to is,
06:31oh, would you look at that?
06:32It's my new book.
06:33How did this get in here?
06:35Look at that foil.
06:36You see that foil?
06:37This, this shiny foil?
06:38Details.
06:39This is a small and short and sweet book.
06:42It is my second book called Be A Triangle.
06:44And this book,
06:47more than anything else I've ever done in my entire life,
06:50any TV show, any movie, any project,
06:52this book has helped me more
06:55than anything else I've ever done.
06:56This is a gift to myself, first and foremost.
06:58And I hope it can be a gift for other people.
06:59But triangles are the strongest shape structurally
07:03because they have a really, really strong foundation.
07:05You know, when you build on a square,
07:07it becomes a rectangle.
07:08It changes.
07:09When you build on a circle, it becomes an oval.
07:10It changes.
07:11When you build on a triangle,
07:12it just becomes a bigger, stronger version of itself.
07:14That is how I build my life.
07:16You know, especially during the pandemic,
07:17I learned that when everything went away,
07:20all my gigs, all my travels,
07:23all my hangs, all my events,
07:25it wasn't only that I was bored.
07:27I really, it's quite sad to say,
07:29I felt like I had no value and no purpose.
07:31And I almost felt like I didn't exist as a human being.
07:33And I realized that's because I associate my value
07:36with all of those things.
07:37Not giving myself the credit of being a full human being
07:40without those things.
07:41And I realized it's because I never did the work as a kid
07:43to figure out who I was, what I cared about,
07:45what my values were, and where I wanted to go in life.
07:48And so I never had that strong foundation.
07:50So Be A Triangle is all about building that foundation.
07:53I talk about four things.
07:54A relationship to yourself,
07:55a relationship with the universe,
07:57understanding distraction, and implementing design.
07:59I mean, I got some really cool people.
08:01People I mentioned here.
08:02Rupi gives me a quote.
08:03Jay gives me a quote.
08:04Mindy Kaling, Kal Penn.
08:05They all say good things.
08:06So if you're interested, Be A Triangle.
08:09LillySinghBook.com is where you can get it.
08:18My favorite genre is definitely comedy.
08:21You know, I love watching comedies on screen.
08:23And I think there's something really special
08:24about reading comedy as well.
08:26Because I get to then make up a voice for this person.
08:28And I get to imagine what they look like
08:30when they're saying that funny thing.
08:31And so it allows for a lot of world building
08:34and scenario building in my mind
08:35that I think is really cool.
08:36The person I like discussing books with the most
08:39has actually turned out to be my mom.
08:40You know, which I never expected
08:42because me and my mom don't have similar reading tastes.
08:44And I'm not sure she has much time for reading,
08:47to be honest.
08:47She's really busy.
08:48But when I started Lilly's Library,
08:50she started to follow along with the books I would recommend.
08:52And it's the first time ever
08:54my mom and I have bonded over books.
08:55You know, she would read this book on schedule.
08:58She would read this second select on schedule.
09:01And it's something that has really bonded us
09:03in a way that I didn't think was possible,
09:05which is really, really cool.
09:06I love going into bookstores
09:08because I love just the aesthetics of books.
09:11I love the environment of being surrounded by books.
09:13I think book reading is like a lifestyle.
09:16I just love being surrounded by literature.
09:19However, if I do not have time to go into a bookstore,
09:21then I will straight up just Amazon it
09:23because it comes to my door the next day.
09:27Hard copy or e-reader?
09:29Here's the thing.
09:30When it comes to books, I'm really old school.
09:31I like to hold a physical book
09:33and I like to physically turn pages.
09:35So I don't like reading on a tablet or Kindle.
09:39I really enjoy being able to hold a book
09:41and then just kind of see the touch and feel of it.
09:44I think it's because of authors like Rupi
09:47that really want you to have a full experience
09:49of how the paper feels and how the book feels in your hand.
09:52And so I prefer holding a real book.
09:54Generally speaking, I like to read before bed.
09:57You know, my nighttime routine
09:58is to make myself a cup of tea,
10:01lay in bed and read a book
10:03because I feel like after a day full of everything
10:06and work and noise,
10:07a book lets me escape into another world
10:10and I can turn my brain off a little bit
10:12and I can dive into someone else's journey
10:14and I can, you know, just experience different characters.
10:18And then also it shuts my mind off in a really nice way
10:20where then I can go to sleep, which is a rarity.
10:24And that's kind of a look into my world of books.
10:26I think more people should read,
10:29more people should dive into different worlds
10:32and, you know, not all of us have the privilege of traveling,
10:35especially during this time that we're living right now,
10:37but the best way to travel is through reading a book.
10:40And that's it!
10:40Thanks for watching Shelf Portrait
10:42and don't forget, if you want to get a copy of my book,
10:44go to lilysinghbook.com
10:46and don't forget to subscribe to Marie Claire.
10:48Bye!