Books that have crossed by bow recently...

Just a quick list of books that I have touched in the last few days that I think are wonderful (it's been a good week):

1: Elephant House: or The Home of Edward Gorey - Images from the house taken shortly after he passed away...everything just as he left it...an unusual glimpse into a life...

2: Alone Together (David Graham) - Exhibition catalog of images taken from a home off the coast of Maine where a couple lived, alone, for 40 years...reading to eachother. He was, prior to his self-exile, an engineer at Lockheed. Not unlike the above, the images were taken after both were dead...capturing in images the world the couple shared, utter simplicity and dozens of books. The essay introduction sums up their lives wonderfully: "Fourty years of solitude. Fourty years of winter storms and late springs and hungry mosquitoes. Fourty years of canned sardines. Fourty years of reading to eachother."

3: Songbook (Nick Hornby) - Just a great collection of essays on music and culture by the author of High Fidelity (made into one of my more favorite films). The first edition came with a very cool 11 track cd with a remarkable collection of music.

4: The Berlin Years (Marcel Dzama) - This is a plate collection and scrapbook of arguably the most interesting illustrator alive at the moment and the best thing Canada has produced since Second City. Breathtaking strangeness.

5: The Irresistible Stories of Anatole France: "Booklovers' Edition" (Anatole France) - A 10 volume set of his fiction. OK, I admit it, I have a weak spot for France. The collection is great reading from the man who gave us such quotations as, "I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom;" "If fifty million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing;" "Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have left me;" and, my personal favorite, "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

That was fun. I may have to do this again sometime soon. Truly, one of the greatest aspects of dealing in books is the day to day discovery of new and wonderful books that make your life slightly more interesting.