A whole life,
one seat.
The Solo Shelf makes books and tools for people who live alone, by choice or by circumstance. Every claim is checked against the records.
The guide for this season
A Table for One
Christmas, New Year and Lunar New Year, rebuilt on purpose for a household of one. The calendar from Christmas Eve in Tokyo to Lunar New Year on 6 February 2027, twelve rituals for one, a festive menu with a leftovers plan, where to travel without the single supplement, the money, the safety page and the company you choose.
On sale from 1 December 2026 on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and here.
Coming 26 January 2027
The Solo Shelf
The popular books on living alone, solo travel, ageing alone and retiring single, from New York to Tokyo, checked claim by claim against the records.
About the bookJournal
Latest essays
Christmas Eve in Tokyo, Christmas Day in London
The same season is kept alone in millions of homes. Two cities show two ways of doing it.
Read the essayThe Single Tax: What a Household of One Pays
No government collects it, yet every person living alone pays it. Here is how it works, and where it can be cut.
Read the essayThe single-tax calculator
Enter your monthly rent and bills. See what you pay living alone, and what each person pays for the same life in a two-person home.
Open the calculatorFive countries, five ways of living alone
China, Japan, South Korea, India and Southeast Asia, each told through its own statistics offices, researchers and writers.
Read the Asia pages