Dolly Parton | Shelf Portrait | Marie Claire - video Dailymotion

Marie Claire

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.

Transcript

00:00If you got a good book and you're into a good story, you're going to have it with you wherever

00:04you are.

00:05If you get a chance, you can go in the bathroom and read another chapter or read a few lines

00:09just to kind of keep the story going.

00:11You'll find the time to read.

00:13Hi there.

00:14This is Dolly Parton and I want to give Marie Claire a peek into my personal library.

00:22So welcome to Shelf Portrait.

00:28So this is me trying to knock stuff off my shelves because I kind of wanted to show some

00:32of the things that are on my shelf.

00:34Of course, I've got a picture of my mom, dad, and me, and we've got my husband, Carl, and

00:39my little dog, Popeye, from years ago.

00:43And of course, this special little piano is like a family heirloom.

00:46It really plays.

00:47I may write a song on that.

00:50But anyhow, these are just little ornaments and stuff that some of my favorite books that

00:54I scattered around.

00:55Seriously, I have hundreds and hundreds of books.

00:58I give books away, but it's so hard for me to give my books away.

01:02I just kind of like get selfish and hang on to them, especially ones that I love.

01:07I just go back and re-read them.

01:09Here's a special book my sister wrote.

01:12It's called In the Shadow of a Song, and it's a lot about our people too.

01:16So a lot of us write.

01:17I'm not the only creative person in this family.

01:20So I really love this little book and I thought, well, I'll show that on my shelf.

01:25So anyhow, these are just fun little things, nothing major.

01:29I'm pretty simple.

01:34This book is called Oral History.

01:37It is by my favorite Southern writer, Lee Smith.

01:41And this book really hits home to me because it's really about Southern people.

01:47It's a wonderful story about families and love and romance and just the hard times that

01:52people go through.

01:53Lee Smith just tells a story in such a way that it just goes plum deep into my soul and

01:59into my heart.

02:00And I just love her.

02:01And so if you have not read Lee Smith, you better get after it.

02:10People say, what's the book that you have read more than any other?

02:13Well, it would definitely have to be this.

02:15My mom started reading this to us before we had books in our house.

02:20This is the Holy Bible, the King James Version.

02:24Of course, I love the Old Testament and all those stories as well.

02:27But there's a lot of wisdom in here.

02:29I find a lot of strength and a lot of hope in reading the Bible.

02:33There's just something about the fact that it always seemed to anchor Mama.

02:37She always seemed to anchor us.

02:39So I know that there's a lot of wisdom in here that I can always draw from.

02:43So there's stuff that I look in here, I write a lot of songs from verses I find in the Bible.

02:48Even the Psalms I think are beautiful.

02:50I'm not trying to promote religion to anybody, but they ask me,

02:53what are the books that I've read and that are meaningful to me?

02:56And this most definitely is.

03:00I bet you know this little book, right?

03:02It's The Little Engine That Could.

03:04This is by Waddy Piper.

03:06And this is the first book in the Imagination Library in my program

03:10where we give books to children.

03:11But this was also my favorite book when I was growing up.

03:16And it still is.

03:17And I often tell people, there's a lot of wisdom in this little book.

03:21And I always say that I am a little engine that did.

03:25So this is a good book for everybody and anybody.

03:28And it just seems to last forever.

03:30And it's always on my shelf.

03:32My little nieces and nephews always say, hey, go read this book.

03:35They love it.

03:36Well, people ask me a lot if I've ever written a book.

03:40Well, yes, I have.

03:41I've written several books.

03:42I've written a book called I Am a Rainbow.

03:46It's really about the moods of children and kind of explaining

03:49it's OK to feel anger, the red.

03:53And I kind of rhyme it all up.

03:54I've written a book called My Life and Other Unfinished Business

03:57that's several years old.

03:59So I do love to write.

04:00And I do have now a brand new book.

04:03It's called Song Teller, My Life in Lyrics.

04:06And it really kind of tells stories, shows pictures of why and when

04:11I wrote the songs, what I was feeling when I wrote all the story songs.

04:15Because I consider myself more than anything a songwriter.

04:18And I really love to tell stories because I love to read.

04:22So I thought Song Teller was a good title for a book for me.

04:27So I hope to continue writing more books.

04:29And I know for a fact I'll be reading more books.

04:32Well, now this book, I bet you millions of people know.

04:36This is The Grapes of Wrath.

04:37And of course, who doesn't love John Steinbeck and all the wonderful things

04:41that he's written?

04:42And I started reading this again.

04:44I probably read this book three times in my life.

04:47But with all the craziness going on in the past year

04:49and all the hard times that people are having,

04:51I started kind of reading again a lot of the old classics.

04:55And this is one I picked up because I relate to the hard work

04:59and the poor people and the struggles and the times.

05:01But I just love this book.

05:03And there's just so much wisdom and so much feeling, so much heart and soul

05:08in books like this.

05:09Nothing like the old classics, really.

05:11Don't you agree?

05:15When I want to know about books, I contact my sisters.

05:20I say, have you read a good book lately?

05:21Yeah, I've been saving you some.

05:23I've been saving you some.

05:24So friends and family, we kind of swap books back and forth.

05:28And I also like to read all the books on the New York Times bestseller list.

05:33I also like to go through Oprah's Book Club, Reese Witherspoon's,

05:36and Jenna Bush Hager's Club.

05:40So there's a lot of good books out there.

05:42And usually, the kind that just kind of word of mouth

05:46are the ones that are the best.

05:48Ha ha!

05:50Do you know Adriana Treghiani?

05:52She's another one of my favorite writers.

05:54She's Italian.

05:56She lives in the city, but she grew up in Cumberland Gap in the South.

06:01And this Big Stone Gap, I just love this.

06:03But she writes so many wonderful things.

06:05Some of them are about the South.

06:07Some of them are not.

06:08She's really an all-around kind of writer.

06:10But she's a wonderful, wonderful writer.

06:12Any time she puts a book out, I just love it.

06:14But this book is really a special one, and I think you will love that.

06:18Well, people ask me if I would do e-reader or hardcover.

06:22Well, I'm going to always pick a paperback book or a paper book

06:27because I just love the feel of books.

06:29I love the smell of books.

06:30I love to smell that ink.

06:32You know, I just love physically to touch a book.

06:35So even though I do sometimes when I'm flying,

06:38I'll read something online or whatever.

06:41But I really think the Kindle don't stand up like a good, hard book.

06:51Well, thank you for joining us.

06:54And don't forget to subscribe to Marie Claire.

06:57And don't forget to read a book, especially one of mine,

06:59especially Songteller, My Life in Lyrics.

Dolly Parton | Shelf Portrait | Marie Claire

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