We recently took a mid-week break in one of our more prestigious hotels and among the facilities I spotted on arrival was a small library space but with expansive shelves.
Books! Forget about the spa; a reading nook is my pamper place. Getting absorbed in a book is something that I really enjoy and what a delight it was to find these volumes from the Masterpiece Library of Short Stories.
Check out the Masterpiece Library at AbeBooks.
Naturally I picked the one marked FRENCH Volumes 3 and 4.
Look at the contents page in the second photo above. Wouldn't you be tempted to spend an hour or two? Well, I was and that's just what I did.
It was time well spent.
What a labour of love it must have been for editor Sir JA Hammerton and his board of eminent critics under the auspices of The Educational Book Company to compile these volumes of stories across countries and time periods. The books, dating from the early twentieth century, naturally show signs of age, wear and tear but those stories are timeless.
Some hospitality outlets display books as decoration and may even have bought them in by the metre to fill shelf space. I have even seen books cut in half vertically to better fit a narrow space! Not these ones. With comfortable armchairs, sofas and lighting these books were meant to be browsed, lifted down and read.
But hotel stays end and the books must stay. Still, those stories need reading and so I went in search of copies online, finding them in all their varying conditions of wear and price ranges.
Check out the Masterpiece Library at AbeBooks.
I did, and a copy of those short stories Volumes 3 and 4 is heading my way.
I have space on a shelf and a comfortable chair.
Bonne lecture !
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire