The Joy of Books

It's no secret that I love books.  For as long as I can remember, I've loved books, and they've been such an important part of my life.  In fact, I met my future husband in a bookstore where I was working part-time.  He came in to look for a book, and he found me.  :)

I can't imagine a home with no books in it, can you?  It would seem rather cold and impersonal to me.  Not only do I enjoy reading books, I love the way they look and feel.  I have a Kindle, and I've finally started using it.  It's certainly convenient, but it could never replace "real" books for me.

You've probably seen this book all over blogland by now, but I'm sharing it today just in case you haven't yet seen it.  I first saw it Here on Vee's blog, "A Haven For Vee," back in the fall, and then it just kept popping up on blogs for several weeks.  At the moment, this is the only Susan Branch book I own, but I'll have to keep a lookout for her books now.   

"A Fine Romance" is the story of how Susan Branch and her husband celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary by crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2, after which they spent two months wandering the English countryside.

The book looks nice without the dust jacket, as well.  :)

I love that it's handwritten and illustrated with her own watercolors, as well as lots of photographs.

The author has taken great care with every little detail.

The endpapers are charming...

...as are the index and the table of contents.

This is a beautiful little book, especially if you've ever been to England or would like to go someday.  It even includes recipes, maps, and travel tips.  You can purchase "A Fine Romance" at Susan Branch's website and Here at Amazon.com.

I have a very small collection of leather-bound books.  They really are treasures.  Most of them I purchased with my employee discount when I worked at the bookstore.

I love the tooling on the cover,

and the gilt-edged pages.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

And finally, a favorite book that my parents gave me when I was about ten or twelve years old.  I guess it might be considered vintage now (depending on your definition of vintage).  ;)

The classic story of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.

More pretty endpapers...

I adore these beautiful illustrations by Louis Jambor.  I wasn't able to find a lot of information about Louis Jambor online.  He was a Hungarian-American painter, and you can read a little bit about him Here.

I saw some of these books on e-bay; they look a lot like mine, and they're not valuable in monetary terms.  But this particular book is priceless to me.  :)

You can see I have a separate category at the top of my Home Page for books.  So far, I've only posted about a few books here, but I plan for that to change this year.  There are few things I enjoy more than sharing my favorite books with friends.

What are some favorite books in your home?  Do you ever re-read your books?  Thanks for stopping by today -- I do love your visits!

I'm joining Marty, at A Stroll Thru Life for Inspire Me Tuesday.  Hope to see you there.

Denise