Continuing on with my series of love letters…
is for Bibliotheca
Bib.li.o.the.ca
n. 1. A collection of books; a library
2. A list of books in a catalog, especially for use by a bookseller
Dear Bibliotheca –
How I love you!
I thought about you the other day when I heard the German word for library and remembered how I love your own sound – how delicious and exotic you sound rolling off my tongue; and how it makes the concept of library even more delightful, like a secret room hidden in plain sight.
And how I do love libraries; and books, and periodicals, and librarians; reading and booksellers, and piled-high bookshelves. Words, glorious words, strung together in ways that enflame my mind, spark my heart, make my own fingers itch with the desire to respond. How many wonderful hours have I spent reading; researching in university libraries and remembering with sweet fondness flipping through old-fashioned library card catalogs when I was young? I think perhaps that where my love of multi-drawer furniture comes from.
You’ve opened so much to me and I love that we’re life-long friends. I love being the curator of my own eclectic collection of books and knowing that I can proudly call them my own private bibliotheca. I celebrate wherever books gather and cheer on those who read them. And I most especially love you Beautiful Bibliotheca!
Deborah
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And now dear readers here’s a little virtual bookshelf for your perusal and delight – a little collection of book-related links.
- We don’t have to maintain silence in my library, and I invite laughter and singing. And this might just be the perfect bibliotheca song – the whole song is simply a list of author’s names and a very short comment. Fun!
- One of the many delights of living in Chicago is that it’s home to the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection and The Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago.
- But if I wanted a more mobile place to visit, I certainly would love to stumble upon this “gypsy wagon” bookmobile.
- A collection of book spine poetry.
- The seriously swoon-worthy and uber-amazing book art of Yusuke Oono. Oh my!
- Peek into a collection of journals. Book by Its Cover – Sketchbooks
- Try though I might I’m just not much of a facebook user. But this, The Real Face Book, has me won over hands down.
Now it’s your turn…share a little book-related love. Have a book recommendation? A library tale to share? Incubating a book of your own? Keep tidy bookshelves or mingle other treasures amidst your tomes? Do tell – you know I love to hear.
Books are my crack. I use the kindle app on my ipad so my husband doesn’t know quite how bad my habit is. and now I can carry my library around with me everywhere I go.
Someday I will write one!
LOL – book crack. And I can’t wait until you write yours – I’ll be at your booksigning. I originally typed book singing, so if you’re going to do that, you can count on me to be there as well. 😉
I love books! While I’ve read most of my recent publications on some sort of reader I enjoy a nice paper book you can smell and feel the pages just as much!
Although I do a small amount of device-held reading, I’m much more of a paper/ink lover. But bottom line, getting the words off the page and into our hearts and minds is all that’s really important.
Books! Just the thought of them makes me smile. Reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things right now. Oh, and Anita Moorjani’s Dying to Live. And a great cookbook called Betty Goes Vegan and a marvelous textile book, Interwoven Globe, and, well, I’d better stop now. 🙂
LOL – I recognize a reader when I see one! Nice mix of delights!
I love the smell of books!!! I love words and weaving them to make a word-picture and keep people on the edge of their seats as I write cliff-hangers and watch them dangle. Yes, I write books and poetry. I am working on a novel this year that is based on The Contract Tarot, a deck I created in 2013. It’s a different tale and one that I hope will demonstrate how we are all connected and how we have tools at our disposal that can be used to untangle and interpret our lives. Thanks for sharing your links, your love and your words, Deborah!!! 🙂 ♥
LOL – I love the image of the cliff-hangers and dangling Jean! How fun to be working on a novel based on one of your decks. I look forward to when you publish it.