Juniper Books – Thatcher Wine

Literagram#21: William Blake’s The Garden Of Love

Posted on 04. Feb, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

great variety in the garden of love…

Literagram#21: William Blake’s The Garden Of Love

Love seeketh not Itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care;
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hells despair.

So sang a little Clod of Clay,

Trodden with the cattle’s feet;

But a Pebble of the brook,
Warbled out these metres meet.

Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to Its delight:
Joys in another’s loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heavens despite.

 

off the cuff

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve custom covered some book sets, which you can check out in our Valentine’s Day Gift Guide or by clicking the photo below.

Gift Books for Your Valentine

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: literagram, Love Poems We Like, poetry, The Garden Of Love, Valentine's Day, William Blake

Literagram#20: John Donne’s The Ecstacy

Posted on 02. Feb, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

Emma Thompson plays a Donne scholar in one of my favorite films—Mike Nichols’ Wit… 

Literagram#20: John Donne’s The Ecstacy

WHERE, like a pillow on a bed,

A pregnant bank swell’d up, to rest

The violet’s reclining head,

Sat we two, one another’s best.

 

Our hands were firmly cemented

By a fast balm, which thence did spring ;

Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread

Our eyes upon one double string.

 

So to engraft our hands, as yet

Was all the means to make us one ;

And pictures in our eyes to get

Was all our propagation.

 

As, ‘twixt two equal armies, Fate

Suspends uncertain victory,

Our souls—which to advance their state,

Were gone out—hung ‘twixt her and me.

 

And whilst our souls negotiate there,

We like sepulchral statues lay;

All day, the same our postures were,

And we said nothing, all the day.

 

If any, so by love refined,

That he soul’s language understood,

And by good love were grown all mind,

Within convenient distance stood,

 

He—though he knew not which soul spake,

Because both meant, both spake the same—

Might thence a new concoction take,

And part far purer than he came.

 

This ecstasy doth unperplex

(We said) and tell us what we love ;

We see by this, it was not sex ;

We see, we saw not, what did move :

 

But as all several souls contain

Mixture of things they know not what,

Love these mix’d souls doth mix again,

And makes both one, each this, and that.

 

A single violet transplant,

The strength, the colour, and the size—

All which before was poor and scant—

Redoubles still, and multiplies.

 

When love with one another so

Interanimates two souls,

That abler soul, which thence doth flow,

Defects of loneliness controls.

 

We then, who are this new soul, know,

Of what we are composed, and made,

For th’ atomies of which we grow

Are souls, whom no change can invade.

 

But, O alas ! so long, so far,

Our bodies why do we forbear?

They are ours, though not we ; we are

Th’ intelligences, they the spheres.

 

We owe them thanks, because they thus

Did us, to us, at first convey,

Yielded their senses’ force to us,

Nor are dross to us, but allay.

 

On man heaven’s influence works not so,

But that it first imprints the air;

For soul into the soul may flow,

Though it to body first repair.

 

As our blood labours to beget

Spirits, as like souls as it can;

Because such fingers need to knit

That subtle knot, which makes us man;

 

So must pure lovers’ souls descend

To affections, and to faculties,

Which sense may reach and apprehend,

Else a great prince in prison lies.

 

To our bodies turn we then, that so

Weak men on love reveal’d may look ;

Love’s mysteries in souls do grow,

But yet the body is his book.

 

And if some lover, such as we,

Have heard this dialogue of one,

Let him still mark us, he shall see

Small change when we’re to bodies gone.

 

 

metaphysics to melt your heart

 

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve custom covered some book sets, which you can check out in our Valentine’s Day Gift Guide or by clicking the photo below.

Gift Books for Your Valentine

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: Donne, literagram, Love Poems We Like, poetry, The Ecstacy, Valentine's Day

Literagram#19: Robert Graves’ Symptoms Of Love

Posted on 01. Feb, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

grave advice…

Literagram#19: Robert Graves’ Symptoms Of Love

Love is universal migraine,
A bright stain on the vision
Blotting out reason.

Symptoms of true love
Are leanness, jealousy,
Laggard dawns;

Are omens and nightmares -
Listening for a knock,
Waiting for a sign:

For a touch of her fingers
In a darkened room,
For a searching look.

Take courage, lover!
Could you endure such pain
At any hand but hers?

 

love's contentment can look rough

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve custom covered some book sets, which you can check out in our Valentine’s Day Gift Guide or by clicking the photo below.

Juniper Books Valentine's Day Book Sets

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: literagram, Love Poems We Like, poetry, Robert Graves, Symptoms of Love, Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day Gift Guide

Posted on 31. Jan, 2012 by Thatcher Wine in Blog, Book Resources, Ideas and Advice

I firmly believe that books make great gifts for any occasion and for every potential gift recipient, there is a book you can give them that they will love, even if they don’t like books!  Sorry if that was a bit of brain twister, but it’s true – if literary classics aren’t of interest, an impressive coffee table book on a favorite topic (Motorcycles? Paris? Fried Chicken?) might appeal!

February has arrived and Valentine’s Day isn’t far away.  For the holiday we have created several Valentine’s Day themed book sets matched with our custom book jackets in reds, pinks, purples and other colors.   Below you will find links to our new offerings.  Please click on the links below or on the photos to be taken directly to the items in our online store.

1. I Love Books Set – $150.  This set shows that the proud owner loves printed books – and the “love” books have been specifically selected for Valentine’s Day given their romantic themes.  The set of 5 brand new books includes Persuasion by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.  See also the slight variation on this set.

I Love / Heart Books

2. Jane Austen Set in pink leather style jackets – $235.  Our most popular set when we launched it just before the holidays at the end of 2011, the product was featured in Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP. The set is comprised of the complete works of Jane Austen, published by Oxford, then we made custom printed jackets to look like pink leather covers.  A great gift set of classic novels including Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice and Emma.

Jane Austen Pink Leather Style Book Set

3. Literary Classics in Red- $250.  This set incorporates 8 literary classics with our custom jackets in a bold modern design that spells out exactly what they are.  The books are all new and include Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.

Literary Classics in Red

4. Valentine’s Day Decorative 3 Book Set ($45) and Decorative 5 Book Set ($75).  The underlying books are re-purposed law books, so these sets are all about the design of the jackets, which are eye-catching, fun and very pink!  These are great for decorating the house for an event, or for retailers to merchandise store windows.

Valentines Day 3 Book Decorative Set

Horizontal Valentine's Day Set

5. Modern Victorian Set in Red – $225.  This set uses a classic Victorian book design from the late 19th century for the book jackets, wrapped around five 20th Century American classics.  The books include classics from Faulkner, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Willa Cather and John Cheever.

Modern Victorian Book Set in Red

6. Cook’s Books in Pink – $250. Our set of 5 classic cookbooks now comes in pink for Valentine’s Day.  Cleverly contained within the letters for Cook’s Books are the titles and authors of the books.  The books are all brand new and include The Joy of Cooking, The Essential New York Times Cookbook and American Cookery by James Beard.

Pink Cook's Books Set

7. I Love J.D. Salinger Set – $150.  Salinger is one of my favorite writers and I came up with this simple idea for the four volumes that make up his complete works.  Like the “Literary Classics” and “Cook’s Books” sets above, this set places the titles for the books within the letters on the spines.  This is a great gift for guys – trust me!

I Love JD Salinger Set

8. European Engraving “Six Pack” – $90.  This set of 6 books is purely decorative.  We have re-purposed six substantially sized law books with an image from an antique engraving that is beautiful, detailed and engaging.  This is a fun way to decorate your shelves with a festive image of lovers, musicians and revelers at a Renaissance village gathering. -

European Engraving Decorative Book Set

9. Bronte Sisters Purple Book Set – $300.  This set of 7 books represent the complete works of the Brontë sisters – Anne, Charlotte and Emily.  The classic works include Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.  We unified the set with a very pretty floral design and jackets printed in a leather style in purple .

Brontë Sisters in Purple Jackets

10. Two Ladies Traveling Decorative Set- $60.  This set isn’t necessarily specific to Valentine’s Day, but I think it’s a very nice design for the shelves.  Like the European Engraving set above, it uses re-purposed law books as the underlying volumes.  The beautiful jacket design is based on a Victorian book cover that we love.

Two Ladies Traveling Decorative Book Set

11. Pretty Woman in Mirror Decorative Set – $60.  Same as the set immediately above, a Victorian book cover caught our eye and we turned it into a design for the book jackets on this set of re-purposed law books.  Our ideas for book designs are sometimes purely decorative and not about the content of the books – sometimes we combine content and style, sometimes we choose one over the other!

Pretty Woman in the Mirror Decorative Book Set

12. Blank Journals – $15 each.  This is a new experiment for us!  We are taking old book designs that we love and using the artwork on the covers of blank unlined journals.  They aren’t fancy, but they are unique and you won’t find them anywhere else.  Depending on how this experiment goes (please buy one!) we will continue to develop this line and create some very interesting journals . . .

Juniper Books Blank Journals with Vintage Book Covers

13. Penguin Classics – we didn’t create these, but we love their design and are happy to build custom collections of them.  We offer a set of 10 where you can pick your titles and we will ship the selected books to you.

Penguin Classics

14. Gift Certificates – if you want to give the gift of books but don’t know exactly what to buy, our gift certificates are a great choice.  Unlike a traditional bookstore where the gift certificate is only good towards what they have in the store, you can use Juniper Books Gift Certificates towards anything and everything book related – custom book jackets, custom bookbinding, rare book or first edition searches, and much more.

A quick thank you to the various blogs who have discovered some of our Valentine’s Day creations and featured them on their sites including DesignSponge.com, BookRiot.com and lots of tumblr users.  We love how the web works and how everyone can discover something they never knew existed!  Keep it flowing . . .

Happy Almost Valentine’s Day!

Thatcher

thatcher@juniperbooks.com

Tags: custom book covers, custom printed book jackets, decorative books, repurposing books, Valentine's Day

Literagram#18: John Milton’s Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint

Posted on 30. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

the last line is, apparently, a reference to Milton’s myopia as much as a lament for his late wife…

Literagram#18: John Milton’s Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint

Methought I saw my late espoused saint

Brought to me, like Alcestis from the grave,

Whom Jove’s great son to her glad husband gave,

Rescu’d from death by force, though pale and faint.

Mine, as whom wash’d from spot of child-bed taint

Purification in the old Law did save,

And such as yet once more I trust to have

Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint,

Came vested all in white, pure as her mind;

Her face was veil’d, yet to my fancied sight

Love, sweetness, goodness in her person shin’d

So clear as in no face with more delight.

But oh! As to embrace me she inclin’d,

I wak’d, she fled, and day brought back my night.

also wrote controversial defenses of divorce

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new book sets. You can find them in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: literagram, Love Poems We Like, Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint, milton, poetry, Valentine's Day

Movies and Videos about Books and Booksellers

Posted on 29. Jan, 2012 by Thatcher Wine in Blog, Ideas and Advice

Movies based on books are plentiful of course, but movies about books, bookstores and booksellers, in the broader sense are fewer and far between.  A few of our favorite movies and videos with book themes – [old books, rare books, bookstores, booksellers, book mysteries, etc.] are listed below.  When you’re not reading a book, these are good entertainment!

1 .The Joy of Books

A delightful creation from Type Bookstore in Toronto Canada – what happens in the bookstore after everyone has gone home.  Sort of a Toy Story with books making use of stop animation and a tight soundtrack to pull off an original production.  I love how the books rearrange themselves by color and also the part where the little book reads the big book.  Definitely a fun one for the whole family to watch.

2. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Just nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short.  The Louisiana based production company Moonbot Studios created this 15 minute gem.  It conveys the magical power of books in a way I haven’t seen captured before.   I love the scene where the main character performs surgery on an old book – just charming.  Hopefully this one wins the Oscar!

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

3. 84 Charing Cross Road

“Their love for books became a love for each other.”  This 1987 movie features Anthony Hopkins as a British bookseller and Anne Bancroft as an American writer.  They fall in love via their letters to each, but alas they never meet.  So you can imagine it is a rather restrained and subtle work.  It’s serious and authentic to the book trade, unlike many elements of the next two.

4. The Ninth Gate

Movies featuring booksellers or set in bookstores are a little harder to choose from.  I’m not thrilled with all of them in their entirety (maybe movie about books make for better short films, such as the above, which is ironic of course given how long a real book can hold your attention!)  There are high points and low points in this movie directed by Roman Polanski and starring Johnny Depp.  It’s about a rare book dealer hired by a bibliophile to validate his copy of a demonic text.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaKkbgtlmZQ

5. You’ve Got Mail

The polar opposite of the dark and gloomy Ninth Gate is this happy romantic comedy from Nora Ephron.  Starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as competing booksellers (Tom Hanks = big corporate evil bookseller and Meg Ryan = small independent struggling to survive) who are having a secret (unbeknownst to them) online e-mail relationship.  The whole AOL inspired title seems dated but the bookseller war of big vs. small, continues . . .

6. The Love Letter

Before there was  e-mail in You’ve Got Mail, there was real mail!  The Love Letter stars Kate Capshaw as a bookstore owner in New England.  Through a chain of events tied together by a mysterious love letter of unknown origin, a romance unfolds. Based on a novel of the same name by Cathleen Schine, the movie and the book are entertaining and romantic without flashy effects.

I’ll have to return to this post or write up a new one to include my deep thoughts on Pamela Anderson as a bookseller in Stacked!

Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

- Thatcher

Tags: books as art

Literagram#17: e.e. cummings’ somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

Posted on 28. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

cummings’ poem about the “shift” key… 

Literagram#17: e.e. cummings’ somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

any experience, your eyes have their silence:

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,

or which i cannot touch because they are too near

 

your slightest look easily will unclose me

though i have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

 

or if your wish be to close me, i and

my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,

as when the heart of this flower imagines

the snow carefully everywhere descending;

 

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals

the power of your intense fragility: whose texture

compels me with the color of its countries,

rendering death and forever with each breathing

 

(i do not know what it is about you that closes

and opens; only something in me understands

the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)

nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

 

lowercase lover

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new book sets. You can find them in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

Juniper Books Valentine's Day Book Sets

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: e.e. cummings, literagram, Love Poems We Like, poetry, somewhere i have never travelled gladly beyond, Valentine's Day

Literagram#16: John Keats’ O Love Me Truly

Posted on 27. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

don’t get thee to a nunnery…

Literagram#16: John Keats’ O Love Me Truly

You say you love; but with a voice
Chaster than a nun’s, who singeth
The soft vespers to herself
While the chime-bell ringeth—
O love me truly!

You say you love; but with a smile
Cold as sunrise in September,
As you were Saint Cupid’s nun,
And kept his weeks of Ember—
O love me truly!

You say you love; but then your lips
Coral tinted teach no blisses,
More than coral in the sea—
They never pout for kisses—
O love me truly!

You say you love; but then your hand
No soft squeeze for squeeze returneth;
It is like a statue’s, dead,—
While mine for passion burneth—
O love me truly!

O breathe a word or two of fire!
Smile, as if those words should burn me,
Squeeze as lovers should—O kiss
And in thy heart inurn me—
O love me truly!

 

 

wanted a warmer squeeze

 

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new book sets. You can find them in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

Gift Books for Your Valentine

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: John Keats, literagram, Love Poems We Like, O Love Me Truly, poetry, Valentine's Day

Literagram#15: Tennyson’s Marriage Morning

Posted on 26. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

15 minus 5 is the nothing I got… 

Literagram#15: Tennyson’s Marriage Morning

Light, so low upon earth,

You send a flash to the sun.

Here is the golden close of love,

All my wooing is done.

Oh, the woods and the meadows,

Woods where we hid from the wet,

Stiles where we stay’d to be kind,

Meadows in which we met!

Light, so low in the vale

You flash and lighten afar,

For this is the golden morning of love,

And you are his morning star.

Flash, I am coming, I come,

By meadow and stile and wood,

Oh, lighten into my eyes and heart,

Into my heart and my blood!

Heart, are you great enough

For a love that never tires?

O’ heart, are you great enough for love?

I have heard of thorns and briers,

Over the meadow and stiles,

Over the world to the end of it

Flash for a million miles.

 

 

million mile stare for a flash

 

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new book sets. You can find them in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

Gift Books for Your Valentine

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: literagram, Love Poems We Like, Marriage Morning, poetry, Tennyson, Valentine's Day

Literagram#14: Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Love’s Philosophy

Posted on 25. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

amorous monism…

Literagram#14: Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Love’s Philosophy

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In another’s being mingle–
Why not I with thine?

See, the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower could be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;–
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

 

 

kiss me, I'm a monist

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new book sets. You can find them in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

Gift Books for Your Valentine

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: literagram, Love Poems We Like, Love's Philosophy, poetry, Shelley, Valentine's Day

Literagram#13: Langston Hughes’ Love Song For Lucinda

Posted on 24. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

I could pass up a plum—good poem though…

Literagram#13: Langston Hughes’ Love Song For Lucinda

Love
Is a ripe plum
Growing on a purple tree.
Taste it once
And the spell of its enchantment
Will never let you be.

Love
Is a bright star
Glowing in far Southern skies.
Look too hard
And its burning flame
Will always hurt your eyes.

Love
Is a high mountain
Stark in a windy sky.
If you
Would never lose your breath
Do not climb too high.

 

don't look too hard

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new book sets. You can find them in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

Gift Books for Your Valentine

About Us:  Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: Langston Hughes, literagram, Love Poems We Like, Love Song For Lucinda, poetry, Valentine's Day

Literagram#12: Christina Rosetti’s I Wish I Could Remember That First Day

Posted on 23. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

Our twelfth poet apparently called off a multi-year engagement upon her husband-to-be’s conversion from Anglicanism to Catholicism. That’s devotion…

Literagram#12: Christina Rosetti’s I Wish I Could Remember That First Day

I wish I could remember that first day,

    First hour, first moment of your meeting me,

    If bright or dim the season, it might be

Summer or Winter for aught I can say;

So unrecorded did it slip away,

    So blind was I to see and to foresee,

    So dull to mark the budding of my tree

That would not blossom yet for many a May.

If only I could recollect it, such

    A day of days! I let it come and go

    As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow;

It seemed to mean so little, meant so much;

If only now I could recall that touch,

    First touch of hand in hand – Did one but know!

 

looking for an Anglican that doesn't smoke and loves animals

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: I Wish I Could Remember That First Day, literagram, Love Poems We Like, poetry, Rosetti, Valentine's Day

Literagram#11: Petrarch’s Love Sonnets To Laura

Posted on 22. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

Petrarch’s famous first sighting of the unrequited love of his life…

Literagram#11: Petrarch’s Love Sonnets To Laura

It was the day the sun’s ray had turned pale

with pity for the suffering of his Maker

when I was caught, and I put up no fight,

my lady, for your lovely eyes had bound me.

 

It seemed no time to be on guard against

Love’s blows; therefore, I went my way

secure and fearless—so, all my misfortunes

began in midst of universal woe.

 

Love found me all disarmed and found the way

was clear to reach my heart down through the eyes

which have become the halls and doors of tears.

 

It seems to me it did him little honour

to wound me with his arrow in my state

and to you, armed, not show his bow at all.

the artist's jests about resting on one's laurels only drew a soft smile

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new book sets. You can find them in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

Juniper Books Valentine's Day Gifts

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: literagram, Love Poems We Like, Love Sonnets To Laura, Petrarch, poetry, Valentine's Day

Literagram#10: Emerson’s Give All To Love

Posted on 21. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

Scrabble tip #10: ‘diadem’…

Literagram#10: Emerson’s Give All To Love

Give all to love;
Obey thy heart;
Friends, kindred, days,
Estate, good fame,
Plans, credit, and the muse;
Nothing refuse.

‘Tis a brave master,
Let it have scope,
Follow it utterly,
Hope beyond hope;
High and more high,
It dives into noon,
With wing unspent,
Untold intent;
But ’tis a god,
Knows its own path,
And the outlets of the sky.
‘Tis not for the mean,
It requireth courage stout,
Souls above doubt,
Valor unbending;
Such ’twill reward,
They shall return
More than they were,
And ever ascending.

Leave all for love;—
Yet, hear me, yet,
One word more thy heart behoved,
One pulse more of firm endeavor,
Keep thee to-day,
To-morrow, for ever,
Free as an Arab
Of thy beloved.
Cling with life to the maid;
But when the surprise,
Vague shadow of surmise,
Flits across her bosom young
Of a joy apart from thee,
Free be she, fancy-free,
Do not thou detain a hem,
Nor the palest rose she flung
From her summer diadem.

Though thou loved her as thyself,
As a self of purer clay,
Tho’ her parting dims the day,
Stealing grace from all alive,
Heartily know,
When half-gods go,
The gods arrive.

an evenhanded essay on the pros and cons of self-reliance

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new book sets. You can find them in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

Juniper Books Valentine's Day Gifts

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: Emerson, Give All To Love, literagram, Love Poems We Like, poetry, Valentine's Day

Literagram#9: Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Desire

Posted on 20. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

writing desk…inkwell…quill…parchment paper…candle-wax…candle-wick…candle-flame?…flame?…pure flame…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Desire

Where true Love burns Desire is Love’s pure flame;

It is the reflex of our earthly frame,

That takes its meaning from the nobler part,

And but translates the language of the heart.

 

the eye-roll reflex

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new book sets. You can find them in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

Juniper Books Valentine's Day Gifts

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books. Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years. Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help. We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: Desire, literagram, Love Poems We Like, poetry, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Valentine's Day

Literagram#8: Dante’s Twenty-Fourth Sonnet from La Vita Nuova

Posted on 19. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

Dante’s twenty-fourth gets new life as our eighth.

Dante’s Twenty-Fourth Sonnet from La Vita Nuova

I felt a stirring in my heart

of a spirit of love which slept:

and then I saw Love coming from afar

so happy, that I scarcely recognised him,

saying : ‘Now think only to honour me’:

and he was smiling at every word.

And while my lord was standing by me,

I, gazing at the road that he had come,

saw lady Vanna and lady Bice

approaching the place where I was,

one miracle behind the other:

and as my mind repeats it to me,

Amor said to me: ‘That lady is Primavera,

and this lady has Love’s name, so resembling me.’

 

would go to hell and back for you

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new book sets. You can find them in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

Juniper Books Valentine's Day Gifts

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books.  Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years.  Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help.  We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: Dante, La Vita Nuova, literagram, Love Poems We Like, poetry, Valentine's Day

Literagram#7: Elizabeth Akers Allen’s At Last

Posted on 18. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

The seventh shall be last…

Elizabeth Akers Allen’s At Last

At last, when all the summer shine
That warmed life’s early hours is past,
Your loving fingers seek for mine
And hold them close—at last—at last!
Not oft the robin comes to build
Its nest upon the leafless bough
By autumn robbed, by winter chilled,—
But you, dear heart, you love me now.

Though there are shadows on my brow
And furrows on my cheek, in truth,—
The marks where Time’s remorseless plough

Broke up the blooming sward of Youth,—
Though fled is every girlish grace
Might win or hold a lover’s vow,
Despite my sad and faded face,
And darkened heart, you love me now!

I count no more my wasted tears;
They left no echo of their fall;
I mourn no more my lonesome years;
This blessed hour atones for all.
I fear not all that Time or Fate
May bring to burden heart or brow,—
Strong in the love that came so late.

At First

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new covers for five different book sets. You can find the sets in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

Gift Books for Your Valentine

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books.  Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years.  Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help.  We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: At Last, Elizabeth Akers Allen, literagram, Love Poems We Like, poetry, Valentine's Day

Literagram#6: Thomas Moore’s Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Charms

Posted on 17. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

An enduring Irish valentine…

Thomas Moore’s Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Charms

Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,

Which I gaze on so fondly to-day,

Were to change by to-morrow, and fleet in my arms,

Live fairy-gifts fading away,

Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art,

Let thy loveliness fade as it will,

And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart

Would entwine itself verdantly still.

It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,

And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear,

That the fervor and faith of a soul may be known,

To which time will but make thee more dear!

No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets,

But as truly loves on to the close,

As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets

The same look which she turned when he rose!

 

Blushed by love or by Byron's comments about that duel debacle?

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new covers for five different book sets. You can find the sets in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below… 

2012 Valentine's Day Book Sets

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books.  Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years.  Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help.  We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: Believe Me If All Those Endearing Charms, literagram, Love Poems We Like, poetry, Thomas Moore, Valentine's Day

Literagram#5: Poe’s Annabelle Lee

Posted on 16. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

No. 5 is, like love, at times bitter but, on the whole, awfully sweet.

Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabelle Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulcher
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me
Yes! that was the reason
(as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we
Of many far wiser than we
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
In the sepulcher there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

 

only eats the dark chocolates

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new covers for five different book sets. You can find the sets in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

Gift Books for Your Valentine

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books.  Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years.  Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help.  We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: Annabelle Lee, literagram, Love Poems We Like, Poe, poetry, Valentine's Day

Literagram#4: Sir Walter Scott’s An Hour With Thee

Posted on 14. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

Lovely Literagram No. 4…

Sir Walter Scott’s An Hour With Thee

An hour with thee! When earliest day

Dapples with gold the eastern gray,

Oh, what can frame my mind to bear

The toil and turmoil, cark and care,

New griefs, which coming hours unfold,

And sad remembrance of the old?

One hour with thee.

One hour with thee! When burning June

Waves his red flag at pitch of noon;

What shall repay the faithful swain,

His labor on the sultry plain;

And, more than cave or sheltering bough,

Cool feverish blood and throbbing brow?

One hour with thee.

One hour with thee! When sun is set,

Oh, what can teach me to forget

The thankless labors of the day;

The hopes, the wishes, flung away;

The increasing wants, and lessening gains,

The master’s pride, who scorns my pains?

One hour with thee.

 

Quite the Romantic

Gift Books for Your Valentine

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books.  Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years.  Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help.  We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: An Hour With Thee, Love Poems We Like, poetry, Sir Walter Scott, Valentine's Day

New Book Sets for Sale

Posted on 14. Jan, 2012 by Thatcher Wine in Blog, Recent Projects

The Juniper Books team has been busy the past few weeks creating new products for sale in our online store.  After many years of doing custom work for private clients, interior designers, and others, we launched the  store at the end of 2011.  While the majority of our business is still custom projects including curated libraries, decorative book installations, and everything else unique and personalized in the world of books, we love making these book sets and reaching a wider audience with them.

Much of the focus of our creative efforts this time of year is on making beautiful book gifts for Valentine’s Day.  Below you will find links to our new offerings, we will probably post a Valentine’s book gift guide in a couple weeks, but this is a bit of an advance preview of the products that are already for sale.  Of course, our most popular book set, the pink “leather” style Jane Austen set, is still for sale and would make a wonderful Valentine’s Day gift. This set was featured in Gwyneth Paltrow’s 2011 GOOP holiday gift guide.

Jane Austen Pink Leather Style Book Set

Please click on the links below or on the photos to be taken directly to the online store – as always we are open to suggestions for new products and also feedback on what we are doing with books and decorative book covers.

- Thatcher

thatcher@juniperbooks.com

• Literary Classics in Red
• Modern Victorian Set in Red
• Cook’s Books in Pink
• Bronte Sisters Purple Book Set
• I Love J.D. Salinger Set
• European Engraving “Six Pack”
• Two Ladies Traveling Decorative Set
• Pretty Woman in Mirror Decorative Set
• Blank Journals Antique Book Inspired Covers
• Thomas Keller Cookbook Set

Literary Classics in Red

Modern Victorian Book Set in Red

Pink Cook's Books Set

I Love JD Salinger Set

European Engraving Book Set

Bronte Sisters Purple Book Set

Two Ladies Traveling Decorative Book Set

Pretty Woman in the Mirror Decorative Book Set

Juniper Books Blank Journals

Thomas Keller Cookbook Set

Tags: custom book covers, custom printed book jackets, decorative books, repurposing books, Valentine's Day

Literagram#3: Robert Burns’ A Red, Red Rose

Posted on 13. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

A rose by two different names probably really is more red.

Robert Burns’  A Red, Red Rose

O my Luve is like a red, red rose

 That’s newly sprung in June;

O my Luve is like the melody

   That’s sweetly played in tune.

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

   So deep in luve am I;

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

   Till a’ the seas gang dry.

 

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,

   And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;

I will love thee still, my dear,

   While the sands o’ life shall run.

 

And fare thee weel, my only luve!

   And fare thee weel awhile!

And I will come again, my luve,

   Though it were ten thousand mile.

Look more to the side, Burns

To prepare for Valentine’s Day, we’ve picked some book sets to custom cover. You can find them in our store by clicking here or clicking the photo below.

Gift Books for Your Valentine

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books.  Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years.  Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help.  We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: A Red, Love Poems We Like, poetry, Red Rose, Robert Burns, Valentine's Day

Literagram#2: George Herbert’s Love

Posted on 12. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

Here’s the second in our series of poems about love. Remember reading this poem in a Simone Weil anthology, for which it was an epigraph.

George Herbert’s Love

 

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,

Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack

From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning

If I lack’d anything.

 

‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’

Love said, ‘You shall be he.”

I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,

I cannot look on Thee.’

Love took my hand and smiling did reply,

‘Who made the eyes but I?’

 

‘Truth, Lord; but I have marr’d them: let my shame

Go where it doth deserve.”

And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?”

My dear, then I will serve.”

You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’

So I did sit and eat.

No need to worry about what to wear when your date's in a Cambridge dining hall

To prepare for Valentine’s Day, we’ve picked some book sets to custom cover. You can see some photos of them below and you can find them in our store by clicking here.

Gift Books for Your Valentine

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books.  Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years.  Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help.  We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: Georger Herbert, Love, Love Poems We Like, poetry, Valentine's Day

Literagram#1: Rilke’s Love Song

Posted on 11. Jan, 2012 by Dan in Blog, Literagrams

Valentine’s Day is just a few weeks away, which of course has us thinking about romantic reading material.  In order to share our passion for books and literature with our friends online, we’re initiating a new concept of virtual collection building—in this case, a collection of romantic poems inspired by our extensive library—that we’ll post from now till Valentine’s Day.

We’re calling these postings “Literagrams”—like a candygram for literature lovers.  So, without further adieu, here’s the first of many Literagrams to come.

- Thatcher

“Love Song” by Rainer Maria Rilke

How shall I hold on to my soul, so that

it does not touch yours? How shall I lift

it gently up over you on to other things?

I would so very much like to tuck it away

among long lost objects in the dark

in some quiet unknown place, somewhere

which remains motionless when your depths resound.

And yet everything which touches us, you and me,

takes us together like a single bow,

drawing out from two strings but one voice.

On which instrument are we strung?

And which violinist holds us in the hand?

O sweetest of songs.

 

Love can seem pretty intense at times

To celebrate Saint Valentine, we’ve made some lovely new covers for five different book sets. You can find the sets in our store by clicking here or by clicking the photo below…

Gift Books for Your Valentine

About Us: Juniper Books is at the center of many things interesting, personalized and beautiful in the world of books.  Thatcher Wine has been selling books and building custom libraries for 10 years.  Whether a customer is searching for a first edition to give as the perfect gift, rebinding a childhood favorite in a new leather binding, desiring an entire library of a particular author or subject, or simply needing decorative books-by-the-foot in a specific color, Juniper Books can help.  We work with private clients, interior designers, architects, visual merchandisers, set designers and many others around the world.

Tags: Love Poems We Like, Love Song, poetry, Rilke, Valentine's Day

Going Big – Large Scale Custom Book Jacket Installations

Posted on 10. Jan, 2012 by Thatcher Wine in Blog, Ideas and Advice, Recent Projects

One of our plans for 2012 is to work with clients to make  large scale book installations using our custom book jackets unlike anything the world has ever seen before!  But first a little background . . .

Custom book covers have a lot of uses and we have worked with clients on some very beautiful projects over the past couple years since introducing them.  The basic idea for custom book covers (aka custom book jackets) is to quickly change the look of a book without the time and expense of rebinding it AND be able to achieve any color and style desired.

Some clients have had us personalize their book collection with modern / contemporary jackets, others have opted for a classical look using leather or vellum designs.  In 2011, we designed, printed and shipped our custom creations to clients all over the US and Canada, Europe and Asia.  We supplied approximately 1,000 of our vellum wrapped books to Darren Henault Interiors for his show house design at the Rumson Stately Homes-by-the-Sea. Other jacket related highlights of 2011 included having our elephant set appear in the New York Times, our vellum style jackets mentioned in Veranda, and also a couple of projects for yacht libraries that were incredibly fun and unique to work on but for very private clients so we can’t disclose much else about them!

Now back to the large scale designs – the concept for these is straightforward – turning book spines into a canvas for personal expression.  Push the books together and they make up a single unified design and that design can be anything.  We have a patent pending on this multiple book cover creation system.

This product/service has both home and commercial applications.

• Home libraries can be modernized, shelves turned into art displays, with book titles integrated into the jacket designs if desired -  we can make book jackets out of  photos, paintings, illustrations, engravings, maps, other artwork, typography and text designs, etc.
• Hotels, restaurants and retailers can have book displays with corporate logos, product photos, nature images, or just about anything else.

Here are a few of our recent creations:

Giant Book Elephant

George Hincapie Bike Racer Library

Medieval Knight Books

Ridley Road Bike

Bookcase Biker

As one can imagine, some very cool installations can be created for homes, galleries, retail stores, trade show booths, showrooms, hotels, spas, restaurants, and so on!

If you have an interest in learning more about this type of work, please contact thatcher@juniperbooks.com or call 303-946-1494.  We are always interested in working with designers, architects, visual merchandisers and private clients who want to do something creative and unique with books.  We look forward to working with you.

Thatcher

Tags: books as art, creative book art, creative ideas, custom printed book jackets, library artist

Encouraging Reading and Literacy

Posted on 03. Jan, 2012 by Thatcher Wine in Blog, Book Resources

The more people read in the world, the better place the world can become.  Literacy = freedom, equality, expression, independence and so much more.  Any activity or organization that encourages reading and literacy gets my support and that of Juniper Books.  Here are a few organizations that are doing great work in this area:

Playing in the Juniper Books Book Fort

1. Getting Books to Kids Who Need and Want Them in America: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

In 1996, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, to benefit the children of her home county in East Tennessee, USA. Dolly’s vision was to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month. By mailing high quality, age-appropriate books directly to their homes, she wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income.

In local news (to us in Boulder, Colorado), the local program of the Imagination Library is looking for direct funding and donations to continue their excellent work.  See:

http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_19649372

http://www.unitedwayfoothills.org/

2. Using Reading in Schools as a Opportunity to Make Social Change: Reading to End Racism.

The program aims to eliminate racism through interactive personal and literary programs that educate and empower youth.   Several of our friends and employees work with the organization and are very dedicated to using books, storytelling and discussion to encourage positive change in the world.  Change comes from individuals  and small organizations making a difference one child at a time and Reading to End Racism embodies that  potential.

Reading to End Racism

3. Building Libraries Around the World:  Room to Read

From their website:

“We envision a world in which all children can pursue a quality education, reach their full potential and contribute to their community and the world.

Room to Read

We work in collaboration with communities and local governments in developing countries to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school with the life skills they’ll need to succeed in school and beyond.

4. Sending Books to Africa Where Literacy and Education Could Change the Future: Books for Africa

From their website:

“The mission of Books For Africa is to end the book famine in Africa. With your help, we will help create a culture of literacy and provide the tools of empowerment to the next generation of parents, teachers, and leaders in Africa.

“Books donated by publishers, schools, libraries, individuals, and organizations are sorted and packed by volunteers who carefully choose books that are age and subject appropriate. We send good books, enough books for a whole class to use.

“They are shipped in sea containers paid for by contributions from people like you. It costs about 50 cents to send a book from the United States to Africa. Since 1988, Books For Africa has shipped more than 24 million books to 46 African countries. They are on once-empty library shelves, in classrooms in rural schools, and in the hands of children who have never before held a book. Each book will be read over and over again. When the books arrive, they go to those who need them most: children who are hungry to read, hungry to learn, hungry to explore the world in ways that only books make possible.”

So, read to your kids, support your local bookstore, donate unwanted books to your local library (for their fundraising sale) and support the organizations above and others like them.

Feel free to contact us with suggestions of other organizations that are doing good work in literacy and book-related programs.

Thatcher

Tags: giving back, literacy, non-profit

Cool Book Artists and Book Art Projects

Posted on 01. Jan, 2012 by Thatcher Wine in Blog, Ideas and Advice

These are projects from other artists and sculptors whose work we admire for using books in creative ways.  Please enjoy the links and feel free to suggest other creative works that we have not mentioned.

Thanks to thisiscollassal.com for helping us discover these first two.

• Cool suspended book installation in Istanbul.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hanifoto/5450655732

Istanbul Modern Art Museum

• The Book Face

Numa Book Face

• The Work of Brian Dettmer - very intricate, detailed, complex sculptures carved out of books – you have to see these to believe them.

• The Work of Su Blackwell - magical creations bringing books to life in different forms

http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/portfolio-book-cut-sculpture/

• John Marshall’s Book Sphere

http://www.neatorama.com/2011/03/01/book-sphere/

Book Sphere

- Thatcher

 

Tags: books as art, creative book art, creative ideas

Easton Press 100 Greatest Books

Posted on 01. Jan, 2012 by Thatcher Wine in Blog, Book Styles

The 100 Greatest Books series from Easton Press is probably the most popular set of leather bound books ever published. The set is composed of literary classics and a few selected volumes of non-fiction – autobiography, history and landmark science.

The books have been rotated over the years so there are actually 125 titles in the series, however any set of 100 books is considered a complete set.

Juniper Books buys and sells Easton Press books privately, so it is best to communicate with us directly about selling your collection or buying these books from us.  We usually have a complete set of 100 books available at any given time and also a healthy selection of individual books.

However, not all the books shown are available at any given time.  Our inventory of Easton Press books changes rapidly but we keep want lists for customers and we build collections over years for our clients.

Leather bound Easton Press books make great gifts and we are happy to assist clients with the selection and sourcing of a single book.  We also have more experience than anyone in building entire collections of leather bound books – we have built collections of Easton Press books numbering into the thousands of volumes.

We are posting this page as sort of a visual bibliography, please ask for permission before using our photos for any commercial purposes, thank you.  Note that since there are so many variant bindings (different colors and designs) we have photographed the various issues for better reference, so many books in the series appear more than once.

The complete list of titles in the series is below, as noted above the books have rotated over the years so there are more than 100 books, however any set of 100 of these books is generally considered a complete set.

1. Aeschylus The Oresteia
2. Aesop Aesop’s Fables
3. Alcott, Louisa May Little Women
4. Alighieri, Dante The Divine Comedy
5. Anonymous Beowulf
6. Aristophanes The Birds, The Frogs
7. Aristotle Politics
8. Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice
9. Bacon, Sir Francis Essayes
10. Baudelaire, Charles The Flowers of Evil
11. Boccaccio, Giovanni The Decameron
12. Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre
13. Brontë, Emily Wuthering Heights
14. Brothers Grimm Grimm’s Fairy Tales
15. Browning, Robert Poetry of Robert Browning
16. Bunyan, John The Pilgrim’s Progress
17. Burton, Richard The Arabian Nights
18. Butler, Samuel The Way of All Flesh
19. Carroll, Lewis Alice in Wonderland
20. Cervantes Don Quixote
21. Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales
22. Chekhov, Anton The Cherry Orchard/Three Sisters
23. Confucius The Analects of Confucius
24. Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness
25. Conrad, Joseph Lord Jim
26. Cooper, James Fenimore The Last of the Mohicans
27. Crane, Stephen Red Badge of Courage
28. Darwin, Charles The Descent of Man
29. Darwin, Charles The Origin of Species
30. Defoe, Daniel Journal of the Plague Year
31. Defoe, Daniel Robinson Crusoe
32. Dickens, Charles A Tale of Two Cities
33. Dickens, Charles David Copperfield
34. Dickens, Charles Great Expectations
35. Dickens, Charles Short Stories
36. Dickinson, Emily Poems
37. Donne, John Poems
38. Dostoevsky, Fyodor Crime and Punishment
39. Dostoevsky, Fyodor The Brothers Karamazov
40. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
41. Dumas, Alexandre The Count of Monte Cristo
42. Dumas, Alexandre The Three Musketeers
43. Eliot, George Middlemarch
44. Eliot, George Silas Marner
45. Eliot, George The Mill on the Floss
46. Emerson, Ralph Waldo Essays
47. Euripides Medea – Hippolytus – The Bacchae
48. Faulkner, William The Sound and the Fury
49. Fielding, Henry Tom Jones
50. Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary
51. Franklln, Benjamin Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
52. Frost, Robert The Poetry
53. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von Faust
54. Goldsmith, Oliver She Stoops to Conquer
55. Hamilton, Alexander and James Madison, John Jay Federalist Papers
56. Hardy, Thomas Jude the Obscure
57. Hardy, Thomas Return of the Native
58. Hardy, Thomas Tess of the d’Urbervilles
59. Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter
60. Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms
61. Homer Iliad
62. Homer Odyssey
63. Hugo, Victor Les Misérables
64. Hugo, Victor The Hunchback of Notre Dame
65. Huxley, Aldous Brave New World
66. Ibsen, Henrik Plays
67. Irving, Washington The Alhambra
68. Irving, Washington The Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Other Stories
69. James, Henry Portrait of a Lady
70. Joyce, James A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
71. Keats, John Poems
72. Khayyam, Omar The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
73. Kipling, Rudyard The Jungle Books
74. Lawrence, DH Lady Chatterley’s Lover
75. Livy History of Early Rome
76. London, Jack The Sea Wolf
77. Machiavelli, Niccolò The Prince
78. Maupassant, Guy de The Tales of Guy de Maupassant
79. Melville, Herman Billy Budd
80. Melville, Herman Moby-Dick or, The Whale
81. Milton, John Paradise Lost
82. Moliere Two Plays
83. Orwell, George Animal Farm
84. Paine, Thomas Rights of Man
85. Plato Dialogues on Love and Friendship
86. Plato The Republic
87. Poe, Edgar Allan Tales of Mystery and Imagination
88. Rostand, Edmond Cyrano de Bergerac
89. Rousseau Confessions
90. Scott, Walter Ivanhoe
91. Scott, Walter The Talisman
92. Shakespeare The Comedies
93. Shakespeare The Histories
94. Shakespeare The Tragedies
95. Shakespeare, William A Midsummer Night’s Dream
96. Shakespeare, William Hamlet
97. Shakespeare, William Romeo and Juliet
98. Shaw, George Bernard Two Plays for Puritans
99. Shelley, Mary Frankenstein
100. Sophocles Oedipus the King
101. St. Augustine The Confessions of St. Augustine
102. Steinbeck, John Of Mice and Men
103. Stendhal The Red and the Black
104. Sterne, Lawrence Tristram Shandy
105. Stevenson, Robert Louis Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
106. Stevenson, Robert Louis Treasure Island
107. Stoker, Bram Dracula
108. Stowe, Harriet Beecher Uncle Tom’s Cabin
109. Swift, Jonathan Gulliver’s Travels
110. Thackeray, William Makepeace Vanity Fair
111. Thoreau, Henry David Walden
112. Tolstoy, Leo Anna Karenina
113. Tolstoy, Leo War and Peace
114. Turgenev, Ivan Fathers and Sons
115. Twain, Mark Huckleberry Finn
116. Verne, Jules Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
117. Virgil The Aeneid
118. Voltaire Candide
119. Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass
120. Wells, H.G. The Time Machine
121. Wilde, Oscar Short Stories
122. Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray
123. Yeats, WB Poems

To inquire about this style of books, please feel free to e-mail us through the form below.

Tags: easton press, leather bound classics

Decorative Books

Posted on 29. Dec, 2011 by Thatcher Wine in Blog, Ideas and Advice

Q. What are decorative books and who buys them?

A. The answer to this question used to be simple, however I’m trying to change the definition of decorative books and also expand the market for them.

There once was a time when the line between people who put books on their shelf only for decoration with no intention of ever reading them or even caring what their titles were on one side and the true readers who would never think of buying a book for its cover were on the other side.  However, since I founded Juniper Books 10 years ago, what I have been trying to do is make all books, book collections, and libraries more visually appealing and integrated into their surroundings.

The results have been pretty successful I think.  Perhaps it has something to do with the evolution of the e-book market and the increasingly recognized trend among publishers and the media that you have to give the consumer more reasons to own a printed book.  For more on this see Selling a Book by Its Cover and also Selling Books by Their Gilded Covers, both articles in the New York Times.

My approach is to provide beautiful decorative books that are exactly what a homeowner wants to have on their shelves with respect to their content.  Sometimes this is achieved by curating a collection of books by author, or by binding type or both, and sometimes it is achieved by curating these collections AND making custom book jackets for the books.

Consider for example these various styles of books and book collections with varying levels of decoration:

Solid Wrapped Books

Custom Wrapped Rainbow of Colors

William Faulkner Hardcovers

William Faulkner First Edition Library Book Facsimiles Collection

Modern Leather Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Jane Austen Pink Leather

Antique Vellum Books

Vellum Custom Book Jackets

Juniper Books Elephant

Read Me Literary Classics

Literary Classics 8 Book Set

So, as you can see decorative books are not what they used to be and they are appealing to many more people than ever before.  Juniper Books is decorative books much more decorative, but also much more useful, readable, and collectible.  We have done everything in the world of decorative books from making the cover-less book bundles for Pottery Barn to designing unique collections in our custom book covers for several of the world’s finest homes, yachts and hotels (a big range I know but it illustrates how we work with all customers love books and love the look of books).

Coverless Book Bundle

Gwyneth Paltrow featured some of our books in GOOP this year, as did Elle.com, and a huge variety of websites and media.  We are hearing from interior designers, architects, builders and homeowners every week how they love discovering our book products and services and how they are unlike anything they have seen before – I think that’s saying a lot for a medium that’s been around for 500 years!

Oh, and did I mention that we are just getting started?  Look for some incredibly creative new ideas in the world of decorative books in 2012 . . .

Thatcher

thatcher@juniperbooks.com

303-946-1494

Tags: books as art, books by coor, books for interior design, books without titles, creative book art, custom book covers, visual merchandising books

Easton Press Famous Editions

Posted on 28. Dec, 2011 by Thatcher Wine in Blog, Book Styles

The Collector’s Library of Famous Editions series from Easton Press is one of our favorites as the books are all classics, and they are reissues (in leather bindings) of beautifully illustrated editions, so they are a very nice way to own the classics.  While there is some overlap with the 100 Greatest Books series, these books tend to be less commonly seen and thus a little more valuable.  There were a total of 264 books issued, so the photos below are just a fraction of that are out there.

Juniper Books buys and sells Easton Press books privately, so it is best to communicate with us directly about selling your collection or buying these books from us.  Not all the books shown are available at any given time.  Our inventory of Easton Press books changes rapidly but we keep want lists for customers and we build collections over years for our clients.

Leather bound Easton Press books make great gifts and we are happy to assist clients with the selection and sourcing of a single book.  We also have more experience than anyone in building entire collections of leather bound books – we have built collections of Easton Press books numbering into the thousands of volumes.  See the bottom of the page for links to past projects involving quantities of Easton Press books.

The goal for most of these signed Easton Press books when published is for them to become collectibles that appreciate in value.  We handle enough of these books to know that is not always the case and we quite often advise clients on appropriate prices to pay for these books as many times they are overpriced in certain venues.

We are posting this page as sort of a visual bibliography, please ask for permission before using our photos for any commercial purposes, thank you.

For more information on this style of books or the availability of specific books, please contact thatcher@juniperbooks.com, call 303-946-1494 or use the form below.

Tags: easton press, leather bound classics