Apologies for my silence of late; the end of last week saw me taking up temporary residence in the local print shop, where I was overseeing the production of some advance proofs of an eye-wateringly exciting title we have coming up – of which more (much more) later.
Seeing all those makeshift volumes being printed up so rapidly had me pondering the book as object. Bibliophile that I am, I’m not one for being precious with my purchases. I’m a big fan of bent spines and folded down corners, annotated margins and inscribed front pages. In fact, part of my attraction to Hesperus books, long before I started working here, was borne of the fact that the books – unlike most modern publications – are properly bound, rather than glued, and even the paperbacks have good, thick covers, so they can take a bit of a battering. Evidence of having been thoroughly read can add so much to a book – in terms of sentimental rather than monetary value, of course. Charles Lamb once wrote of lending books to Coleridge:
Reader, if haply thou art blessed with a moderate collection, be shy of showing it; or if thy heart overfloweth to lend them, lend thy books; but let it be to such a one as S.T.C.–he will return them (generally anticipating the time appointed) with usury; enriched with annotations, tripling their value.
I wonder what Mr Lamb would make of this site, which makes a feature of inscriptions found in books. I love the fact that the messages are at once so intimate and so anonymous…
Ellie
“… bent spines and folded down corners, annotated margins and inscribed front pages. ” The horror! The horror!
Actually, I love second-hand books, and then they can be as battered as can be and chock full of inscriptions but, if they come to me new, they stay blummin’ new. They are transported in jiffy bags and the spines stay unbroken!
Mark: I also don’t put CDs back in their cases. Do you hate me?