Library lust

I have started collecting books about books,( I mentioned this before) which of course is a self perpetuating vicious cycle that makes me lust over other books...and the cycle continues.

Within these pages are destinations, or for true bibliophiles, meccas.

A movie for the collector in us all

I have watched this movie a dozen times since I purchased it a month ago, on a recommendation of a friend, and I'm so glad I stumbled across it.
40 years of friendship through the pages of books are chronicled in its scenes, spanning two continents, and numerous references are made to great ( and not so great) literature.
Helen Hanff, a lovely New Yorker and avid antiquarian book lover, contacts Frank Doel, a book dealer in London, to inquire about the availability of cheap yet worthwhile volumes to fill her collection.
Thus a friendship is borne through letters, book orders, gifts and a love of English literature.

To paraphrase a lovely scene, where Helene describes the beauty of a first edition volume in contrast to her utilitarian apartment:

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" Take a look at this...isn't that beautiful"
Helene hands her friend a lovely brown leather book, and her friend runs her hands over the book, examining the spine.

"It's beautiful".

Smiling ruefully Helene explains " It's a first edition my dear,one HUNDRED years old" as she irons her clothing carefully.

"It's beautiful" repeats her friend, now turning the pages with curiosity.

"I feel guilty about owning it, all that gleaming leather and gold stamping.It belongs in a pine paneled library in some old English country home, you know what I mean?" shrugs Helene. A wistful look overtakes her face "It should be read by the fire in a gentlemens easy chair,not in some second hand overstuffed seat in a broken down brownstone front" she declares, as her face changes from wistful to lamenting.

"Oh now, if I were this book, I want to live RIGHT HERE," her friend gestures solidly, smiling.

"You're Right" smiles Helene broadly, pausing her ironing to soak in the thought.

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I can only hope my gold gilded books would feel the same way, in our modest house, filled with not so real antiques, and chain store furnishings. I would hope they would want to be on my shelves...right here, out of anywhere else.

Were I so lucky as to know an antiquarian book dealer, I am certain I would have them on speed dial.Since I am not that lucky yet in life, I shall make do with the wonders of the internet.
Now, if I could just afford that $2,000 edition of Jane Austens' works....

Confession: after watching this again, I went back and wrote down all the book names I could make out and attempted to track them all down. So far in my quest, four of them are readily available, only 2 of which are affordable...in keeping with Helene's own search for affordable literature, I shall continue the search. Though I think I may skip the Latin bible this time around...unless one seems like it would want to "live right here"

Reading, breathing, living.

I grew up the youngest of four kids in a suburb of Seattle. I also grew up being disabled and partially deaf, and all the challenges that went with that set of circumstances. My books provided not just an adventure, but a way to try out lives.
I will never ski, but I can read about the thrills of streaking down a glistening slope in Austria.
I will not travel much, but through books I can almost smell the spices in the markets of India, see the Elephants crossing the lowlands of Africa, and I can imagine 5th Avenue in NYC...with the wide boulevards, honking horns, and the sea of yellow taxis as far as the eye can see.
I have seen all these places and more. I have flown, swam, fought, created peace...all through the lives of characters.
Where will I go tomorrow, and what will my name be? Will I be a hero, villian, or ambitious nobody?

Books are my escape and my destination rolled into one, and for that I thank the authors.
I am whatever I want to be in their pages.

When you know you are a bibliophile

I know I am a book addict. I embrace it, accept it, feed it and wallow in my book addiction. I have ordered my books by EXACT height and subject on my bookcases, and then decided it should be divided by antique and modern versions, so of course I had to start over again.
Now, this addiction takes on yet another level when you find yourself buying books on how others display their prized books.
Just yesterday I was watching a movie about a book collector while shopping for 1850's volumes online, while thumbing through this book. I cannot decide if that's insanity, immersion, or just dedication.
I can however heartily recommend this beautifully photographed book that displays quite adequately the libraries of owners across the globe.
I found myself jealous of many collections, shaking my head at a few others that seemed to not display their books with reverence, and feeling inspired to continue building my own library.
Just skip the resources section at the back of the book, or you'll find yourself at the airport, on the way to far off libraries and gorgeous stores. After all, only they will understand your addiction to the written word....right?

A pleasant read

Were I to wish for one possibility, it would be truth in sentencing for criminals. Not as proposed through legal wrangling by lobbyists, but the actual facts as seen through the eyes of crime victims themselves.
In this book, the dead speak of their own tragedy that has befallen them through their own words, but not in conventional means. Imagine if you will the ability to pick up an object and know exactly who touched it before you, and their hopes, dreams and sadness that surrounded them. Such is the discipline of psycometry...the ability to touch an object and know it's history.
Natalie Lindstrom, the main character, has just such an ability, and can actually see what the victim saw just before their demise.Employed by both the police and FBI, Natalie is called on to testify in court cases involving lives cut short by murderous acts. As a criminal justice nerd, this idea is fascinating to me, as are the reprocussions. The few characters in this book with this talent have strikingly violet colored eyes, and thus stick out like a sore thumb amongst others. Contact lenses are their salvation. ( i think that sentence is one of the oddest things i have typed, and cannot help but giggle at the thought of salvation through lenses)
Picture if you knew someone in your town had this skill, and it was proven...how would others react? They would both be vilified and praised, stalked and shunned.
But the dead speak...and they speak volumes in this book.
Pick it up, it's worthy of a summers day, as are it's sequels