For Those Who Devour Books

  

As Zoe mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'm new to the Booksmith. Hi there Brookline! You're a lovely bunch!

Pros of this new job: There are books. Everywhere. And people who love books. And some people who don't ordinarily love people but who, through that particular alchemy of tacit bibliophilia and a slow Sunday afternoon, agree to share the planet and maybe even a coffee + scone.

But! Cons: I'm gaining weight. Why the heck am I gaining weight?

Fancy-pants logicians might draw conclusions. They might point to the industrious yet generous bakers and gardeners among my new colleagues. They might mention the creperie across the street, the pizza joint on the corner or any one of the numerous little cafes which prove so irresistible on lunch-breaks. They might question the wisdom of a staff candy-jar. But you know? I blame the books. 

(Image courtesy of We Know Books )

(Image courtesy of Design Mom: Book of the Week)

Consider: who among us doesn't hunger for literature? Whether you voraciously consume your latest Booksmith purchases or savor them, page by delicious page, you're in good company here. Take, for example, Oliver Jeffers' The Incredible Book-Eating Boy (above) which I recently found in our Children's section. It's the story of Henry, a young boy who develops a literal taste for books (red ones are his favorite).

(Images courtesy of Creative Review)

 Elsewhere in the genre of Books With Symbolically Significant Bite Marks is the aptly titled Eat Me: Appetite for Design. I'm crazy for this book, you guys - not just because its wafer-textured cover and creamy two-toned pages remind me of a layer-cake. It's a compilation of projects by modern artists and design firms who draw inspiration from food. When both form and content make you salivate, you clearly have a winner.

(Image courtesy of Playing with Flour)

 All this is to say nothing of the cookbooks, about which I could go on for pages. But to continue in the vein of really lovely design, I'll leave you with a gem that recently caught my eye. Any pastry aficionado will be familiar with Ladurée, the ultra-luxurious Parisian pâtisserie and purveyor of the quintessential macaron. This cookbook, daintily packaged to resemble a box of the bakery's infamous confections, holds in its gilt pages what I can only assume are the best-kept secrets of the cut-throat meringue and creme industry. Buy it for the Francophile in your life and save it from my clutches - my bookshelf and I are going on a diet.