Photo by Lori Eanes

Long-married novelists Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman are of one mind about the acquiring, handling and lending of their books — key to any successful marriage between booklovers. Michael is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and many other books, the most recent of which is The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. Ayelet is the author of the “Mommy-Track Mysteries” series (with such hilarious titles as The Big Nap and Playdate with Death) and the novels Daughter’s Keeper and Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. The dynamic duo spoke to me from — and about — their book-filled home in Berkeley, California.

Photos by Michele Lee Willson

It’s a cosmic law. When lovers of words, two poets in this case, fall in love and live together for a couple of decades or more, they accumulate books, lots of them. Margery Snyder co-edits (with Bob Holman) About Poetry for About.com. She’s read her own work up and down the West Coast, in the Southwest, and in London and Paris. Snyder’s books include Loving Argument; The Gods, Their Feathers; and Earthly Magic. Consider yourself blessed if you come across them. Two of her poems can be read on the About Poetry site: “If There Are Only Minds, Who Will Breathe for Us?” and “Heathrow To Russell Square.”

Whitman McGowan is a spoken word performer and the veteran of incendiary appearances in the U.S. and Europe, including an August 2007 spontaneous combustion at Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. To learn more about his books, recordings, and to read some of his poetry, visit his website. Snyder and McGowan live in San Francisco.

Photos by Lori Eanes

Approximately how many books do you currently own?
I don’t even have a clue. I have a roomful of books that are constantly around me and then books distributed throughout the house in every room. Including the kitchen. I’ve never thought to count them.

What kind of shelves do you have?
I have Euro-design shelves that were made for my study (the room that counts). The outlying shelves are all also custom-built into various nooks. We did a remodel in 1991 and built all the shelves in ... and then of course found that there weren’t enough.