a sort of harem

The Euro spent some one-on-one time with his folks back in the autumn and I’ve just gotten around to downloading the photos from his trip. One of the things I love about the man is this: the way he loves books. One of his prize possessions is a copy of the Apocrypha printed in Italy in 1681 – bought at auction back in 2004 – and a beautifully illustrated Book of Knowledge that hit the presses in the North of England in 1764. My own collection isn’t as illustrious. A first edition Artemus Ward, signed by the man himself, which I bought at my favorite Oxfam Bookstore on Marylebone in London. A superbly old and beautifully preserved novel by Mark Twain, compliments My Darling Steph. And a copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night, circa 1934, without its dust jacket, sadly, found laying in a nondescript antiques store in North Carolina for a mere eight dollars.

2 Responses to “a sort of harem”

1. Sara says:

   21 April, 2011 at 16:17

   This library makes me drool.
2. JP says:

   7 June, 2011 at 2:37

   Books and their lives, the way the old ones outlive humans by centuries haunts me.

   Now I have to go watch “The Ninth Gate.”