Judge a book by its cover

One of my overriding passions (I confess I have too many) is buying books. Not just any books though - Books with amazing cover art work are my favourites. A Folio society devotee since birth (some of my earliest gifts were their beautifully bound and illustrated tomes), I have recently moved onto buying more and more paperbacks - since I positively devour books - and with my long commute and lack of funds, I was virtually bankrupting myself through my book habit.

Then on Friday on a visit to the aforementioned Anthropologie I noticed these penguin editions of classic titles with covers designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. It was love at first sight.

Oh yes dear reader - I can and do judge a book by its cover, and will frequently buy based on the cover alone. This was the instinct that presented itself to me when faced with these Penguin Classics cloth bound in hardback. Only I knew that these were not only objects of beauty but classics of literature, the role call of names provided reassurance that this would not be another case of beauty over brains. My sweaty palms prohibited me from touching the sacred objects, and beating heart forbid me to go near in case I was swept up in the romance and had to buy them all - risking both my bank manager and Mr.'s fury.

So I proposed to myself to go home, and look the series up on the web, find out how many there were, and whether I could devise a sensible strategy for purchasing them all over time. It was then that I discovered that Coralie Bickford-Smith had designed further book covers for penguin which I had equally admired, and in some cases purchased.

To explain fully - I am just a little obsessive about my books - no corner breaking - no margin notes - no spine breaking is allowed. Yes I do love the aged look of my books bought second hand or inherited, and accidents do happen. However any wilful or careless disfigurement of my precious darlings and I will get very angry. As a result many of my books do not look like they have ever been picked up, even though I have read them several times, I have had to stop reading in the bath - one of my favourite past times - because of the fear of page curling, and I never ever lend them to others.

I also find that I get terribly upset when a new book by a favourite author is made available only with a cover featuring a different type face and graphic identity to the others I own. Or worse I can only buy a much wanted or loved book in a cover that I just feel doesn't suit it.

Now however I have a name to follow - a designer whose work is sympathetic to the subject of the book, beautiful and full of colour, yet not lacking humour.

I know I will just love the editions that she works on in the future.

Anthropologie

Finally, eight years after I discovered Anthropologie, and decided that it was my favourite shop in the world (well... my favourite chain store, the independents, gallery stores, and antique shops are too numerous to choose between) it arrives in the UK today. I'm going to have to run down there in my lunch hour to see if it compares to its sister in New York which I visited less than a week ago. On that occasion I was too blown away by the sheer quantity of things that I needed to have (as well as the thought of baggage restrictions) to buy anything. This time my purse might not escape quite so unscathed. Plus its really close to Liberty's, my favourite department store (how many different sorts of favourite am I allowed?) so there's double the risk.

Prints Charming

Retro Super Futures - sunglasses at Libertys with Liberty print - need want must have - can't afford. Especially since I always just sit on my sunnies and brake them anyway.

Oh well, I will just have to put up with these from Topshop - which incidentally I bought ages before the Liberty ones were even released - so they're not even a cheap copy - just cheap!

Peace Cranes

Sunny Summer Days

Over the weekend I got back in touch with all the reasons why I chose to live in Bristol. On Saturday we went walking to the city farm, and saw the ducklings. Ate overlooking the river, and took the ferry along it afterwards. Later on we went to the park at the end of the road and watched the balloons from the day's Balloon Fiesta gathering in the sunset. I captured the moment with the Polaroid that mister bought me for Christmas - the day and the shots make me feel nostalgic for summer's past, when I had nothing better to do than lie down in the long grass and day dream.

On Sunday I painted the dining room a beautiful summery pistachio green - we opened up the back doors and let in the smell of the lavender, the newly budding purple flowers looked beautiful in contrast to the new paint. Then celebrated with a close friend, homemade lemon cake, and a good bottle of wine courtesy of mister's brother.