Book porn!

[misslj_author]

I just borrowed from mum, her box of books called "Gordon Classic Library." A bit of digging around the internet tells me these books were published in the 1930s, and were for the Australian and New Zealand book buying market. Mum tells me she used some of these books when she was studying English Literature at high school.

I've always loved this set of books. They're *beautifully* bound - dark red faux leather, real gilt page edges, very fine paper with dark type. The bindings are strong and the covers are midway between a traditional paperback and hardback. They're not very large, perhaps half the size of a normal paperback, but they have a looooot of pages to make up for that. Plus, they smell like old, antique books, which is just awesome. Especially as they are old, antique books!

When I was a kid, I think I read this copy of "Little Women" more than a dozen times. I used to sort the books around, alphabetical by title then alphabetical by author. I remember the box used to live on top of my upright piano in the wide hallway of dad's house. This box of books has travelled all over the city with mum, from house to house, flat to flat. I'm really glad she kept them, and so is she.

Anyhoo, because books are one of the reasons we're all here, I'm sharing photos of the box and books. Onwards, beneath the cut!









And just for something a little different, an adorable (in my opinion, anyway,) photo of my cat, Castiel, Kitty of the Lord, hamming it up for the camera.

Comments

[angharad-gam.livejournal.com]

Interesting to see what people put on the list of classics back then. I've never heard of 'Toilers of the Sea' by Victor Hugo. I always assumed he only ever wrote 'Hunchback' and 'Les Mis'.

But these sort of books are cool. My parents had a similar collection, albeit newer and with fewer books (they came individually so maybe they just stopped getting them) - but same deal with the gilt trim and maroon hard-back covers.

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's a couple there I haven't heard of outside their inclusion in the box. Ian's got a box from his mum, too, my mum tells me, but she doesn't remember what books are in it, just that they're different to this box.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

cute kitty.

I love books like these. I have several but I've not seen them all bound in a box like that. That is very cool.

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

But a naughty kitty. :)

I really love them. I haven't read all of them, but I decided to give it a go and try and read through the box.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

they usually are.

Neat. There are some there I've never heard of.

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

True. I'm looking forward to when he gets older and sleep is more appealing to him than being a ratbag.

Same here. There's some really obscure titles in that box.