2011-01-05

Dust of which he breathed


“He loved a book because it was a book; he loved its odor, its form, its title. What he loved in a manuscript was its old illegible date, the bizarre and strange Gothic characters, the heavy gilding which loaded its drawings. It was its pages covered with dust — dust of which he breathed the sweet and tender perfume with delight.”
— Gustave Flaubert

3 comments:

Graham Powell said...

This is the reason I probably won't get a Kindle. I love books the way Goldfinger loved gold - the way the pages sound when you riffle through them, the smell of the paper, the heft...

Aimee said...

Absolutely. What a wonderful quote; what a beautiful picture.

Jen Jordan said...

Every book store I've ever walked by has made my mind race with all the possibilities of treasure within.