Reader, Writer, Reviewer

Can you believe I was actually up at 7:30 on a Saturday?!  We desperately wanted to be on the 9:12 train downtown.  And we did it.  The Hubs accompanied The Bestie and I to the Printer’s Row Lit Fest and here’s an idea of what we saw:

Some of what you can expect from used book dealers

My favorite kind of antiquarian stall

 

And now for the booty!  These first two aren’t antiques, but I think they’re gorgeous.  Both are Franklin Press leather-bound with pretty gold inlay, gilt pages, marbled front pages (what’s the correct term?) and beautifully illustrated.  The red one is The Good Earth by Pearl Buck, and the blue one is an Edgar Allen Poe collection featuring The Gold Bug. Bonus, when I checked out, my total was $31, so I gave the guy a 50 and a single, and he gave me $30 in change, so I got them for $21!

Next I found this lovely volume of Medieval Lore from 1905.  I love the feel of it and the details on the binding ($35).  Here’s some Medieval Lore for you, the first from Medieval Medicine, the second from Medieval Geography:

True Love, which now reigns over the heart, then took its rise in the liver… The Heart, on the other hand, was considered as the seat of wisdom…  The brain in medieval times was regarded only as the home of the “wits of feeling”–the senses.

Solinus speaketh of Ireland, and saith the inhabitants thereof be fierce, and lead an unhuman life.  The people there use to harbour no guests, they by warriors, and drink men’s blood that they slay, and wash first their faces therewith…

There was just something about the print below that I couldn’t resist.  I adored the illustration, and upon further inquiry, I learned the illustrator was Arthur Szyk, the renowned Polish Jew Illustrator who was lucky enough to get the hell outa dodge before the War.  The original was illustrated in 1945 and the Thackeray quote reads, “Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.”  That’s so me, and I love that it looks like an illuminated manuscript.  I don’t own anything like it and it was only $5.

 

I found my favorite typesetting place in its usual spot.  I didn’t find a great selection of metal blocks like I had in past years (I have Julz and Merilatt spelled out in printing blocks), but I did find this darling little preassembled one.

The coolest discovery of the day was this awesome t-shirt stand with author or literary character names and numbers on the back and some type of corresponding illustration on the front.  Of course, I HAD to get the Alice one, and I highly recommend you check out the website of Novel-T.  The illustration on the front is a cupcake, the sprinkles say Eat Me, and it has the Cheshire Cat stripes and the smile on the cherry.

So there you have it.  I found some awesome stuff, and I kept within my budget, only spending $99 of the $109 I had set aside for this outing.  Rach got hardcover copies of Pat Conroy’s Beach Music and the fabulous Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.  Aaaand I have to show you this awesome necklace The Bestie brought for me:

Inside the pendant are charms she picked out especially for me: mine and The Hubs’ initials, a rose (sorority symbol), a glass of wine (glug glug), and a typewriter.  How cool is that! She got it at an Origami Owl party, I’m going to have to check that out.

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