Beautiful Books ~*

by Liz

I love beautiful things, especially old books. Leatherbound, foxed, stamped, rough-edged, front plates with tissue paper covers…old books are like wonderous new friends you’ve known forever. They are one of my favorite things to collect.

Yesterday, Chris gave me the most beautiful book. It’s a copy of “Friendship” by Cicero and Emerson, with sprinklings of quotes from Suckling, Shakespeare, and all those other poetic Englishmen of old. The binding is breathtaking, bound in midnight blue fabric and stamped with ornate Art Nouveau designs. Usually the pretty designs stop at the cover or maybe the title page, but this book has 238 pages of full-color, gilded borders. EVERY. SINGLE. PAGE. And the binding is crisp, as though Miss Bernardine Hester (whose name is written delicately on the first page) never opened the book after Mr and Mrs. Jones gave it to her on June 7th, 1910. Perhaps Cicero wasn’t Bernardine’s favorite author, so the book ended up like many gift books do, tossed on the shelf and forgotten.  The book passed down the family for almost 100 years, before someone decided cash was better than a dull dissertation on Friendship and sold it to Half Price books. The gem of a tome sat on the shelf for God knows how long, before sweet Christopher decided to save it and give it to me.

Oh, the best part of any book, more than golden edges, more than great authors, or full-color plates, is the person who unites a book with a reader. And what a person he is! Thank you, Christopher, for giving me the most beautiful book in world. I will never toss it on a shelf to be forgotten –never.

{I Love You}