Book hunting is one of my favorite excursions, next to looking and experiencing art. You will find me at used book sales sponsored by local libraries or rummaging through boxes of books at tag sales or lost in the stack at used booksellers like The Book Barn in Niantic. I fulfill a quirky fetish to run my fingers across the spines of new, uncracked books, at independent book stores like R. J. Julia Booksellers in Middletown, Connecticut. My purchased and collected books are commodities of beauty that hold between their covers knowledge, inspiration, wisdom, and in some cases illustrations or imagery, an added visual to my reading feast. Each volume is arranged (thematically) in bookcases or stacked by length on my nightstand and other nesting places in my home. They are my comfort and my escape.
As a teacher in the visual arts, I collect and reference books by art historians, artists, curators to develop my visual vocabulary and gain new perspectives on works of art and movements. I encourage you to build a personal library of books in genres you enjoy. One of my favorite quotes about books is from bookseller, The Strand Bookstore, in New York (another favorite stop when I travel in the city)—“Collect what you Love, Your Dream Library Starts with One Book.” For more engaging quotes on books, check out Book Riot, an independent editorial book website, blog post “45 OF THE BEST AWW-INSPIRING QUOTES ABOUT BOOKS” Click link: https://bookriot.com/2017/04/27/45-best-aww-inspiring-quotes-books/
My Dream Personal Library is pictured on the left; on the right, one bookcase full of some of my favorite art books ornamented by a white fruit bowl my grandmother gave me, a crystal vase, a postcard of two dancers and a drawing of a man’s armpit by an artist friend. My dream library is getting there! 🙂