Dusty and old

Wednesday is a fickle day.... sometimes I love it, and sometimes I hate it.

This week, I love it.

My father-in-law called me this afternoon and left me a message letting me know that a package had arrived for me. How exciting!!
I was pretty sure I knew what it was, as my mum was sending me a box of books. They are getting ready to sell the house, and are cleaning things out..... and I have way too many books

(while I am writing this, I am sucked into BattleStar Galactica....)

Anyways, sure enough those books arrived, and what a thrill it was to open the box!

My Granny's books that she had passed on to me...

3 mini volumes of Shakespeare that I used to eye longingly when I visited her house. They were so little, just the size a young girl would find especially appealing (Remember when anything little was so desirable? Tiny writing, teeny My Little Ponys, Cabbage Patch Preemies, very small stickers....)
(Best episode of BSG ever... and now I have moved on to a dvr'd episode of Leverage)

When I was in Uni finishing up my English degree, my sweet Granny broke the news that our family had a famous relative that was a writer.
This was pretty much the most exciting news I had ever heard, and I immediately headed to my University's extensive library to locate his books. And to my delight, there they were!!


His name is Charles Reade, and he was a contemporary of Dickens. I guess my Granny had a set of his books, family inherited, that she had thoughtfully ruined by storing them in my mum's drafty, poorly insulated shed (a shed that my sister and I painfully remember painting many summers ago).

So those poor books, who lounged alone in a damp cardboard box for years, were freed when my interest in literature was revealed. I love my Granny and I know shes a little absentminded.... but those poor books.

Mum and I took them to an antique book dealer, who told us that there was no point in even attempting to have them restored.... they were just too far gone.... oh poor darling books...

They have joined us down in Florida, where they will have a better home than that damp shed.

Funnily enough, one of my sister's old books joined the batch that was sent down. I only knew it was my sisters as it had the name of one of her high school boyfriends in it (who I will only refer to as Mr Camoflague). It was full of pressed flowers from her 18th birthday....

Now I only need a proper bookshelf to store them on. And they might lounge for a little in the box that they arrived in...

Regardless, they completely brightened up my Wednesday!