Book love for my imaginary coffee table

I have a love affair with books.

I love the words, but also I love the feel of them, and the smell of them. One just can't take in all a book is with a "reader." I understand its place of convenience, but how could we as a society ever permanently trade away the feeling of opening a hardback in your hands and flipping the crisp pages for the first time? I can't imagine we ever will. I have this dream of one day having this incredible stack of super special, big, beautiful coffee table books - on a coffee table - that people actually look at and feel inspired by. OK, realistically, that's not happening anytime soon. Hello, motherhood. But a girl can start a collection, right?

So today when we went to the going-out-of-business Borders bookstore and everything was 40% off, I was hunting for treasures.

And I found them.

Oh. My.

I had no one to share my absolute glee with when I happened upon a single remaining copy of this book in the design section. I'd been wishing for it, but had never seen it in person. It is so beautifully substantial and inspiring. I want to take a picture of every page and post them.

I WANT TO LIVE IN THIS BOOK.

Check it out. I know a couple people with this wallpaper....Joy & Ashley Ann...both ladies with incredible taste.

Heaven will be decorated by Orla Kiely, I believe. This book is going on the top of my coffee table dream stack.

I also found this beauty at the bookstore.

It was in the children's section, and is a sort of vocabulary book with amazing graphics and colors. It was originally in French, so some of the vocabulary words are not standard for American children, such as "bocce" (as in the game) and "tapping" where people are crouching next to trees in a forest, presumably harvesting maple syrup. Look how pretty and 'me' it is.

I bought it to (gasp) remove pages to hang all over my house as the seasons change. Yes, I'm cringing at the thought of damaging this book. I'm also considering buying a second copy to ease the pain of watching it be dismembered. I'm so weird, I know.



 This is my favorite page. How fun is this book?



These books are on my wish list for Christmas.

This one, well, because Capri is my favorite spot on earth, and having a giant book of incredible photography will 1) remind me of being there with my love on our tenth anniversary, and 2) ease the pain from our camera getting stolen on our last day there and ending up with zero photos. Yeah, it's been four years. And yeah, I still a little bit want to cry about it. This book is a mandatory part of my dream stack.

And this one seems like a book you and I both would love. Remember we saw it in person at that cute boutique a couple weeks ago? Yummy.

And oh. One last thing. I saw this today at Borders.

I did a double take at the author. Yep. Good ol' Pioneer Woman. Which tells me one thing: when I get to be a famous blogger, at least I'll finally have an "in" for getting my children's books published (that I have not yet written). That's one bonus for being a famous blogger. Next she'll be coming out with an album and sporting a cameo on Grey's Anatomy.

So what's in your dream stack, ya know, if you had a coffee table all to your big girl self that was magically repellent to Legos and Disney princesses?

linking up with Kristy at Paisley Jade today!