Sunday 8 May 2011

Treasured to bits


There are lots on the shelf that I have not read: mint condition, solid of spine, no under-grad sniggering or underlinings. But I could not settle to them.

Instead, I gravitated to the hospital-shelf: seen better days, past their use-by-date, ready for the top pasture.

My Gatsby is inscribed 1970, and comes replete with 'Discuss the relation of the desriptions of Daisy to the structure of the novel.' The frontispiece of the Dedalus tome has 'the growth of the embryo and the growth of the soul mirror each other ...'. Holden baby is dated 1966 and each page is separate, Snowball and Napoleon have been staple-gunned!

So, I chose the Scott-Fitzgerald and fossicked around for a substantial lacky-band ...

8 comments:

PerthDailyPhoto said...

They look like well read and well loved books Julie, treasures really.

Hope you have a lovely Mother's Day
All I'd like is breakfast in bed and I'll be a happy woman.

Best wishes
Grace

Joe said...

Looks like these texts have imparted such dreams and affection.

Joan Elizabeth said...

I can never find anything I want to read in a second hand bookshop and yet in a new bookshop I can see many more than I can afford.

diane b said...

'lacky band' I haven't heard that for a while. I have some old books in the cupboard from my childhood and from my parents. However, I rarely read a book twice so I give my books away when I've read them. Am I weird??

Julie said...

Yes! But I know many people who think similarly!

I like to wrap books around me like a comfortable jacket. I like to have them tumble into shelves and little tables and floors. I used to have many more when I lived at addresses for decades!

Rae Walter said...

I have also used some old treasures for art; falling in love with the words again, but in a new form - whatever that may be. Maybe words peeking out from under a drawing, maybe words left deliberately clear for reading whilst others are covered.

Jilly said...

Oh what a marvellous photograph. I'm so glad I didn't miss this delight. Your love of books, of literature, is so evident in these wonderfully worn gems - and what choices. I too treasure my old books although sadly a lot got ruined when I lived in Wales - rain, doncha know... it rains a lot in WAles, not that it should have got at the books but it did. I still have some even tho the pages are now stuck together...

Kay L. Davies said...

These look SO familiar, Julie. The top one, however, is one of my all-time favourite books!
— K

Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel