When I was 23, I went to Paris, one of the great shopping capitals of the world. Did I bring back perfume? clothes? a gorgeous pair of shoes? Nope. I had a suitcase stuffed with old books from Shakespeare & Company. My luggage was heavy, but erudite.
I love books. I have books in almost every room of my house. And they are not decorative. I don't understand the current designer trend of wrapping them in matching plain wrappers. Or taking the covers off and then tying them together with string. How will you know what books they are? How can you select a book from a blank library? I'd take it as an modern art installation, about knowledge being hidden beneath the surface, but it's obvious they aren't being that deep.
Biography/Memoir
Peter the Great - His Life and World
M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child & Alice Waters - Celebrating the Pleasures of the Table
Brother, I'm Dying - Edwige Danticat
Millionaire - A biography of John Law
Abigail Adams
The Forgotten Genius - A biography of Robert Hooke
Cooking
M.F.K. Fisher - Among the Pots and Pans
Fiction
Swann's Way - Marcel Proust
Dixieland Sushi - a rainy day read
Travel
Hunting Mr. Heartbreak
As you can tell, I got a little carried away at the Biography table. I love biographies. The Proust was one of those " I've always been meaning to read this" purchase, and since I have very little vacation time, I'm usually up for an interesting travel book. I also picked up these:
These are pamphlets, so they don't count towards my 10 book total. (I'm justifying myself -shhh!) One of them even has the original price tag on it: 2 shillings, sixpence. Peter the Great has a beautiful butterfly bookplate in it. You don't get that kind of detail in an e-book.
How was your weekend?
Unfortunately, books aren't cheap (cheaper than Louboutins, but still, an expensive habit.)
So this weekend I met up with a book-loving friend and went to the Houston Public Library Book Sale. $2 hardbacks and $1 paperbacks. Heaven.
Book sales are quiet affairs. Everyone is scanning the titles, reading a few pages to see if the text grabs them. We must have been there at least 2 hours.
Before I went in, I put myself on a budget. 10 books, no more. This was painful, because there were a lot of books. I skipped the Math and Science section entirely. I barely glanced at Drama, and only saw 2 tables of fiction, and there was a photography book that I'm still kicking myself for not buying. Still, I think I got a good haul for my 23 dollars.
Cooking
Fiction
Travel
As you can tell, I got a little carried away at the Biography table. I love biographies. The Proust was one of those " I've always been meaning to read this" purchase, and since I have very little vacation time, I'm usually up for an interesting travel book. I also picked up these:
How was your weekend?
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