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The Abbey Bookshop Paris

The Abbey Bookshop in Paris is located in the Latin Quarter and is owned by Canadian, Brian Spence.

The bookshop is housed in a beautiful, historic building that housed Hotel Dubuisson in the eighteenth century. Image: craigfinlay

Approaching the doorway, you get the first hint that this bookstore is simply overflowing with books, 35,000 of them. Image: Peter Halling Hilborg

Even the medieval cellar is filled with books. Image: Madolan Greene

The bookshop describes the store as “groaning, jam-packed shelves and shaky stacks of books in the narrow store”. Image: David Webber

I love all of the ladders in this store. Image: Rich Watts

The Abbey Bookshop with its huge stock of English language books joins Shakespeare & Co as a must see book stop in Paris. Image: chrys (lascribe.net)

Enjoy,

Posted on February 29, 2012 by aprettybook, Reply

Key Covers

If a store of any kind has a book section, I generally browse it hoping to find a new author I can’t live without. Perusing a small book section in a large store this weekend, I noticed several old skeleton keys gracing the book covers. It seemed like a preponderance of keys for such a small shelf, but as I attested to in a recent post, I love keys, so I’m happy with the cover designs.

77 Shadow Street by Dean Kontz

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards

Altar of Bones by Philip Carter

Perhaps if I dug deeper, I would find that skeleton keys have always been popular on book covers. But I think I’ll forgo that research and just enjoy the pretty keys and covers.

Posted on February 27, 2012 by aprettybook, Reply

Friday Collection of Pretty Books 2.24.12

Another week, another collection of pretty books!

This beautiful teacup bookshelf was created by Scott Blackwell of Creative Wood Furniture.

Kyoto bookstore. Image: np&djjewell

Spring flowers on a bookshelf. Image: YUN HSIEH

Reading with two girls in 1920. Image: Cornell University Library

Wonderful old library card catalog. Image: 7-how-7

The roundup for A Pretty Book this week includes:

Enjoy,

Posted on February 24, 2012 by aprettybook, Reply

Bookshelf Baby

Not all estate sales are held in well kept homes of the wealthy. Sometimes you must visit a ramshackle house that has been closed up for years and forgotten. Such was the case for the sale last weekend. In a pile of papers shoved under a kitchen table, I noticed this battered family photo.

The back reads “Lynnie at Christmas ’50. In her Great grandma Summers book shelf.” There are just so many things to like about this picture.

It’s real, not staged like so many of the baby on a bookshelf photos that I see.
I can just see the baby standing in front of the shelf, holding on with one hand, and swatting at the books until they end up in a pile on the floor.
The look on the baby’s face is joy. Plus, she’s wearing those old, high top, white baby shoes.
I’d love to be there to hear all of the visiting relatives oohing and aaahing over “that cute thing Lynnie did”.
There is a LIFE magazine in the rack instead of an antique store.
There are some old, pretty books on the shelves.
If I had that chair, I’d paint it white and cover the cushions in a cool fabric. It has nice lines.
The picture is in black and white and has scalloped edges making it really unusual to hold.
And, did I say it yet, the baby is too cute.

If you have a baby on the bookshelf photo and want to talk about it, just send it to me!

Enjoy,

Posted on February 23, 2012 by aprettybook, Reply

Wellcome Library – London

During my last trip to London, I was determined to sneak in a visit to the British Library. As I walked the few short blocks from the tube, I passed the Wellcome Library, and on the basis of its name alone, I decided to venture inside. I had researched literary places to visit in London, but had somehow missed this jewel.

The library’s brochure calls the Wellcome “one of the world’s greatest collections covering the history and progress of medicine”. The frieze circling the reading room highlights the names of “distinguished figures in medical history”, such as Pasteur, Lister, Koch, Roentgen, and Pavlov seen here. The library’s founder, Sir Henry Wellcome, originally installed the frieze in 1913 in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum and it was moved here in 1962.

Although the Wellcome includes a cafe, bookshop, and exhibition areas, I spent my time in the two story reading room. I loved all of the beautiful wood shelving, especially those on the upper floor surrounding the balcony.

The library contains many editions of Gray’s Anatomy, including a first edition published in 1858. Gray died of smallpox at the age of 34, just three years after the publication of his book, which is still updated and in print today.

Browsing the stacks revealed book after book related to medicine.

Many of them very beautiful.

I didn’t visit the Rare Books Collection, but it houses 600 volumes of incunabula (books printed before 1501) and 5,000 books printed in the 1500s, along with about 60,000 other rare books and publications.

Unexpected surprises are one of my favorite parts of travel and the Wellcome fit the bill. Add it to your London sites to see.

Enjoy,

Posted on February 21, 2012 by aprettybook, Reply

Weekend Treat: Literature Handbook

These beautiful volumes are titled Handbuch der Literaturwissenschaft. They are broken into alphabetical sections and the only one that I can read is labeled “Kappelmacher Schuster – Literatur der Romer B.Z. Karolingerzeit”

There are several modern editions with the same title, but they are comprised of fewer volumes, so I’m not sure they are the same book. The most recent edition is a guide to literature; however, the pretty books above appear older so they may not contain the same content.

Have you read any of these books or can you provide a better translation?

Enjoy,

Posted on February 19, 2012 by aprettybook, Reply

Friday Collection of Pretty Books 2.17.12

Another busy week as I plan for the goodness that will happen in Tuscany at our creative retreat in September. But there is always time to find pictures of pretty books.