the book faery...

I have just been visited by the book faery (ok....by the postie....) and lookie, lookie, lookie, at the wonders inside the royal mail bag (no kidding - these arrive in a separate white and black bag stamped 'royal mail great britain' - postman pete at cobargo just loves 'em)

Inside the big box in the big bag was....

.... a stunning version of Thoreau's 'Walden' - with pictorial slipcase, bound with grey leather and silk, silver gilt pages, lovely B&W photos (one folds out.... soo decadent! soo delicious! sooo drool-worthy!)

and did I mention it's rather LARGE (that's my wee hand holding on with delighted pleasure)



and also inside the box in the big bag was a little book.... about a big subject - 'The English Language' by Robert Burchfield

and then there was the lusted for (but oooh soooo difficult to procure down here at the creek).....
2 volume set - The Oxford Companion to the Book....

I have so wanted this from the moment I read some of the blurb:

The Oxford Companion to the Book is a unique work of reference, covering the book, broadly conceived, throughout the world from ancient to modern times. It includes traditional subjects such as bibliography, palaeography, the history of printing, editorial theory and practice, textual criticism, book collecting, and libraries, but it also engages with newer disciplines such as the history of the book and the electronic book. It pays particular attention to how different societies shape books and how books shape societies.

....... read more

and got even more excited (if possible) by a review for the set.....





So of course rang up my local booksellers (marvelous, patient, ever helpful creatures at Candelo Books) who rang everywhere trying to get a set..... only to told at all ports that the back order is now into the 3rd printing (scheduled for later in 2010)..... and there's nothing at Amazon UK or US either

so just imagine my delight when I noticed the Folio Society were offering a set FREE with any qualifying order (gasp!!!!) - I now have all four beee-yut-i-ful bookies for less than the price of the OCB (that's not available anywhere anyway....)



*ahhhhhh* (contended and slightly superior sigh)
thank you book faery (aka my now empty bank account)