Antiquarian Christmas
7th December 2012
I have a large collection of old books that have followed me from house to house since I left home. They are the bain and the love of my life, they have memories and smells, but they are cumbersome and heavy and take up too much room, i always consider giving them away but can never bring myself to.
They are the remnants of a very large collection that my father bought over decades and i remember vividly the time i spent with him in old bookshops as a child. My father had a large study in our house and gradually over the years the office got smaller and smaller as he bought more and more books and piled them up on every wall and surface of the room until it was half its original size. When he bought a new car he would keep the old one for additional book storage, so we would have old cars in the garages that were completely full of books, in the boot on the dashboard and all over the seats.
Gradually over the years my collection has diminished but i still have plenty left and i always wonder what to do with them and what a shame it is that they have so little use. They have stories and pictures and yes they are lovely but they take up too much room in my small house.
I came across these ideas for recycling the pages of old books and i thought what a lovely way to give an old book a new lease of life. There are lots of lovely Christmas ideas but others that could be used all year round.
I will of course make sure the ones i recycle are not first editions!
Happy Christmas recycling.
