BTT: Presents!
Nov. 6th, 2008 07:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fourzoasNo, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
persiflage_1, this isn't your story. :-P
Today's Booking Through Thursday prompt reads:
So, it's [Deb's*] birthday today. (Please, no applause.) But it’s inspiring today’s question–
This is easy and I've got two. Steve has been buying me various odds and ends over the years; I've got a small, but growing collection of 18th/19th century editions of some of my fave texts. The coolest thing, though, that he's gotten me is William Blake's Water-colour Designs for the Poems of Thomas Gray. The book is a commemorative catalogue from a Tate Gallery exhibit. My favorite illustrations are the ones for "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes."
The second book is the most recent addition to my library, but it's not from Steve. Shortly after I arrived at Millsaps, I was visited by one of my colleagues in the English department (my primary office is located on the opposite end of campus from the English faculty) who brought me this
It's an early 20th century edition of Wordsworth's Prelude. The book has been passed from one British Romanticist in the department to another, and each professor has signed the front leaf of the book.
There are marginal notes written over the years, as well as a few bits of paper with other notes about the poem. I generally don't like writing in books, but in this case, it just makes it so much more special. I have to admit that I nearly cried when I realized what he'd given me.
*For my LJ readers: Deb is the BTT list owner/maintainer. She reads tons of books, is a brilliant knitter, and has a dog named Chappy.
persiflage_1, this isn't your story. :-PToday's Booking Through Thursday prompt reads:
So, it's [Deb's*] birthday today. (Please, no applause.) But it’s inspiring today’s question–
What, if any, memorable or special book have you ever gotten as a present? Birthday or otherwise. What made it so notable? The person who gave it? The book itself? The “gift aura?”
This is easy and I've got two. Steve has been buying me various odds and ends over the years; I've got a small, but growing collection of 18th/19th century editions of some of my fave texts. The coolest thing, though, that he's gotten me is William Blake's Water-colour Designs for the Poems of Thomas Gray. The book is a commemorative catalogue from a Tate Gallery exhibit. My favorite illustrations are the ones for "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes."
The second book is the most recent addition to my library, but it's not from Steve. Shortly after I arrived at Millsaps, I was visited by one of my colleagues in the English department (my primary office is located on the opposite end of campus from the English faculty) who brought me this
It's an early 20th century edition of Wordsworth's Prelude. The book has been passed from one British Romanticist in the department to another, and each professor has signed the front leaf of the book.
There are marginal notes written over the years, as well as a few bits of paper with other notes about the poem. I generally don't like writing in books, but in this case, it just makes it so much more special. I have to admit that I nearly cried when I realized what he'd given me.
*For my LJ readers: Deb is the BTT list owner/maintainer. She reads tons of books, is a brilliant knitter, and has a dog named Chappy.
