Wednesday 4 July 2012

bookshop to bookshop

After a delightful Friday evening mooching in Daunt Books, spending my birthday book money, and a little bit more. I was fortunate to buy two of the lovely Daunt Books published books Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge and Favourite of the Gods by Sybille Bedford. I was looking out for these but the cover of Mrs Bridge by Evan S. Connell tempted me and so another book was bought.


"Afterwards they would walk from bookshop to bookshop, and they knew them all, considering the books which, one day, they were going to buy. The very look and smell of them was fascinating, their clean wrappers, the exciting reds, the sombre blues and rich browns. There was a bookshop smell, too - a smell of old settled dust, watered down in layers, printer's ink, and a taint of glue. They would stand close together, looking in through the window .
'We'll have that some day..and that...' 
'We must get it in a really good edition,' William would add. 'I like a book that opens decently and has good clear print. I never feel the same about a book I've read in a cheap edition.'
'I'd sooner have a cheap edition than no edition at all,' Catherine would argue." Elizabeth Cambridge Hostages to Fortune
bookshelf

Are you a Catherine or William as far as books are concerned?

10 comments:

  1. A Catherine definitely. And what a perfect day that would be - just wandering from bookshop to bookshop. The weather wouldn't matter then! Hmm, a trip to Hay on Wye may be necessary sooner rather than later.

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    1. Tonia - Yes & then to sit on a quiet sofa & read them!

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  2. A Catherine too, I'd much rather read something brilliant than not. I love Daunts, if they did rooms...

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    1. Lilac - Yes if they did rooms, or a delightful cafe adjacent to the book shop.

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  3. Replies
    1. Desperate Reader - Do you think most bookish bloggers are Catherine's?

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  4. I'm mostly a Catherine, but I do like nice editions if I can get them. I refuse to check out some library books because they are just too ugly!

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    1. Anbolyn - Your library comment made me smile. Hope you don't have to refuse any today.

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  5. More of a William and abit of an Anbolyn, I would say. ;)
    I don't mind so much if it's a cheap edition so long as it's not ugly to me! I'd rather wait for the right edition to come along than to read an ugly one.

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    1. Michelle - Hello! Oh yes definitely not an ugly edition, though if there's no other I will read a less than aesthetically pleasing one, I ended up doing that with Dr. Zhivago.

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Ooh how lovely more stripes on the page...
Thank you for taking the time.