It's a well known fact among my friends, family, colleagues and regular customers that I have a borderline unhealthy obsession with beautiful books. I even implemented a book case full of them in the shop with a bay header proclaiming them as "Beautiful Books" for all to see.
This is why I can never bring myself to buy an e-reader. I have nothing against the electronic format. I understand its place in our industry and its usefulness with regards to travelling, student textbooks and the practicality of it when it comes to lack of shelf space in homes, but I love the printed word on tangible paper.
There's something special about a well designed cover, beautiful illustrations, surprisingly uncommonplace end papers and unique title pages that give books an added splendour over their cold, soulless electronic counterparts. Okay, I might be a little bit against e-books... but the absolute pleasure I get from gazing across my heaving bookshelves and running my fingers along their spines until I can no longer resist the pull from one of my beloved tomes and take it out to read. That's priceless. That's magic. I've never felt the same thing scrolling through a list of titles on a screen or even flicking through rows and rows of book covers displayed on a virtual beige bookshelf.
I'm a bit off topic now. My Beautiful Book of the Month feature will be a celebration of the finely crafted literary treasures I've had the honour of purchasing or pining hopelessly over the years.
Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Published October 2009ISBN: 9780955881879
White's Books LTD
http://www.whitesbooks.com/
Despite being one of the most recent additions to my book collection, this lovely series of books is one I've admired and coveted as a bookseller and book lover over the past few years. Its my first purchase from this fantastic collection, but I'm sure it won't be my last.
This stunning clothbound edition of Sherlock Holmes is part of the 'Fine Edition' series of books created by a small publishing house called White's Books founded by former Penguin Books designer David Pearson.
 |
| Front Cover and Spine |
Instead of the traditional dust jacket found on other hardbacks, the distinctive wrap around cloth cover is printed using brass printing blocks and the fantastic image is designed by celebrated illustrator, Michael Kirkham. Combine that with decorative endpapers, elegant typesetting printed on thick luxurious acid-free paper and this is a something that must be held between your fingers to truly appreciate it.
 |
| Endpaper Design |
I love that edition! I always look forward to Xmas with getting all the new Barnes and Nobles etc in. Have you seen that Headline's new imprint Tinder Press are focusing their new titles as Beautiful Book?
ReplyDelete*dances with glee* My first commenter! I apologize, but this doesn't happen very often to me and I was pleasantly surprised to see any response on this site at all.
Delete*smiles* I've always loved the White's editions since I do prefer the feel of the clothbound books over the leather B&N ones, but I did just recently buy the B&N Jules Verne HB. I couldn't resist. It was too pretty. I've been lucky enough to convince my manager to allow me to order up a bay's worth of special edition books, so I've been a bit spoiled lately with the literary eye candy. It's been very bad on my bank account though.
I've just read up on Headline's new imprint because of your comment. I actually picked up a proof copy of 'Amity & Sorrow' based purely on the strong cover design a few weeks ago, but I haven't had a chance to read it quite yet. My proof pile is getting a bit scarily high and wobbly. I did really like the artwork for Tinder's next book 'Snapper'. It'll be interesting to see what kind of success they have with their first year. I know I'll probably end up ordering more copies than I should just to justify facing them all out in section. ;)