I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love and treasure books. I still have the first book I ever possessed: a pocket King James Bible, given to me on the day of my baptism by my maternal grandparents. I still have the first book I remember ‘reading’ (meaning ‘looking at’ or ‘being read to me’): an illustrated life of St Francis of Assisi for children. And, by the way, the most recent book I bought was Volume 3 of the Collected Works of St Teresa of Avila – ordered on Amazon on Monday evening. I suppose there is a religious thread here…
When I was old enough to get the train to London on my own I spent hours in the second-hand bookshops around Camden Town and Charing Cross Road, snapping up all the hippie books that were de riguere for any self-respecting teenager at the time – Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Rules for Radicals, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Tao of Physics, The Faber Book of Modern Verse, etc. This is what formed me! But even while I was hunting out paperback bargains to sit under my Athena posters, I had one covetous eye on the small collection of Folio Society books that sat in the corner of every bookshop.
They were and still are the most beautiful books in the world. The covers, the binding, the print, the paper, the illustrations. And the box cases, with that distinctive curve at the front edges so you can pull the book out without having to shake it. Every one a work of art.
I dreamt of having a whole library of Folio Books. I own one now, Augustine’s Confessions, which I blogged about last year. The second-hand bookshop round the corner here in Chelsea has its own Folio Society shelf – I might pop round tomorrow and see what I can find.
I write all this simply because there is a feature on the Guardian website about Folio books – more an advertisement really. But it does give a glimpse of what delights exist behind the covers – a taster for anyone who hasn’t come across them before. Here is the main feature. Here are ten classics, with examples of their illustrations. Here is the Folio Society site itself.
Folio books are beautifully made but, strangely, their highly stylised illustrations which have always repelled me…
Hope you enjoy the new addition to your library!
I agree they are so very special.
Before my Daddy died He built in my antique little cottage a bookcase from floor to ceiling, running the whole length of my hallway. It was almost filled instantly. And now there are overflow bookcases jotted all around the place.
My favourite book in the whole wide world is a little dull looking 5″ by 3″ suede raggedy edged burgundy book which has been stamped to reveal an intricate symbol of The Kings Treasury, on the leather. It has the gold words selected poems, Wordsworth on the cover. Inside there is not even a date. It has old print inside, George G Harrap & Co. William Robertson. And a quote from Shakespeare’s Tempest “Volumes that I prize above my dukedom”
The top of the pages is edged in gold and the pages are all just rough-cut.
It is beautiful to me. My gentle uncle was a road sweeper for a while, and he found it and gave it to me as a gift, because I wrote poetry as a little girl. He died in his 40′s a short while later.
It is most precious in many ways and the only suede book I have ever seen.
My folio book comes 2nd and it is thanks to your blog.
p.s I too am adicted to little old rare find book shops, I usually head straight for the poetry section. I Love to open them and smell the pages, and to see if there is a romantic inscription to someone of old.
I do not own a Folio Society book, but do appreciate the beauty of the entire “package,” not only the printed word, but the print, binding, illustrations, etc., as well.
My favorite books I re-read more often than I will admit. There is something about some classics that just need to be experienced over and over, for me. Also, I have a few cherished books that were given to me by a friend, and those not only do I read for the wonderful books themselves, but also for the memory of the giver.