Where lives are marked in pages

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2000/06/21/MN24339.DTL&type=printable

As a newleywed, I'm searching for a honeymoon

We never had a chance to go on a honeymoon, but as poor romantics, I was thinking my husband and I would travel someplace wonderful on our first anniversary. Since Italy is out of my price range, perhaps I can talk him into this:

Trying on lives

I lead a small life, in a small town. I grew up in the lovely city of Seattle surrounded on the outskirts by large roaming forests, with trees so tall and so old that you feel if you lean in close and listen with your heart, they will whisper the secrets of life to you.
In this new town I live in, the trees were largely planted by housing developers in the 1980's, and seem like petulant teenagers with no secrets to tell, but my books made of old trees whisper their stories to me.
Where would I like to go today, if I could travel anywhere? Italy would be my first answer, and Frances Mayes' books on Italy call to me.
Who would I invite over for coffee and a long rambling conversation? The answer lies in the biography of George Washington, as written by Irving, as I have many questions on where he intended his fledgling country to go.
So you see, in my small town where I live my small life, I can dream sweeping epic sized dreams, of poets and politics, of travels and study, and of what my own dreams are as they ebb and flow like the tides, ever changing.
I often have thought that you can tell the most about a person based on what books they read, and on what shoes they wear. My bookcase on display has most of my small antique prized collection, whereas my bookcase in my bedroom holds primarily schoolbooks and trade paperbacks. Decide what you will based on my books.
My shoes shall remain a mystery.........

I may have found a new love

http://www.foredgefrost.co.uk/gallery_foredgeNORM.htm

Behold the dangers of books and painting combined

I am not elitist...I am equal opportunity

My heart loves leather ribbed old books, but in a pinch I have taken in several vinyl bound volumes. They are the poor man's gilding, the attempt at elegance that usually fails, but should be commended for trying.
Thus, I have many books that would make the average antiquarian book lover cringe, but every book deserves a shelf, even if they are plasticized monstrosities. Don't blame the books, blame the publisher.

I discovered I am not alone in my lust

http://thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/hot_library_smut/

You are warned. It's book smut, big beautiful books and libraries.....you can almost feel the leather......

Ahem, excuse me. I need to go assure my books I haven't cheated on them

Why gilded pages you ask?

Upon entering a bookstore, I let out a little content sigh...I am home.
The shops of my choice have books to the ceiling, ladders and a selection of antique leather bound volumes so beautiful that they can only be described as art. Finding these shops is not an easy task in and of itself, but I long for the days browsing them once found.
BUT, my heart truely skips a beat when across the shop I see a glimmer of gold gilded pages; the sheen, effort, and love that goes into producing such art humbles me, and I love to run my finger up the edge of the pages. Even mass produced books with gilded pages give me the same, albeit smaller rush of emotion.
I am an equal opportunity book lover as i do have many mass produced paperbacks, which I consider junk food for the brain. They are the perfect escape after a long day. Through books I can try on lives as I would shoes, and travel to far off lands. I can be wealthy, poor, migrant or native.
So thus this blog is borne, to document my obsession, wishes, and love of gilded pages.
My undying thanks to my mother, who read me more stories then I could count, and to my teachers, for the gift of reading.