Let's Take a Moment For Some Book Love...

As would be expected of a book and media blogger, I love to read. But I am also a book collector, and it is quite the obsession. I can't resist browsing through used book stores to find new favourites, or beautiful copies of those I already adore. The good, musty smell of a Penguin Classic will get me every time (you fellow page-sniffers will know what I'm talking about!). Here are some of the things I find super difficult to resist when perusing the shelves:

• Penguin Classics - As you have likely guessed, I love these. There is just something about the thin pages, the perfect size to fit in a purse or locker, and an easy, readable font. I own tons of them, and if I have the choice between a Penguin Classic edition of a book or a different copy, I am most likely to go for the Penguin.
• Gilded Pages - Those hardcover books with the gold leaf edges? Yeah, that is what I live for. I want to pick them up and touch them. They just look as though they have been made with so much love and care that I instantly connect with them.
• Intricate Endpaper and Flyleaf - You know when you open the cover of a book, and there is a lovely repeating pattern on the first pages? I feel like I am in Regency-Era England, and everything is as it should be. Now, just combine this with gilded pages, and I am hopeless.
• Sketches - When there's a few drawings here and there throughout the book, I love it. Yes, sometimes they are weird, and sometimes the captions are incredibly strange, but I find it a quaint addition.
• Frontispiece - Not typical of current books, this is that page near the beginning of the book that has an illustration or author portrait. I particularly love seeing this for Shakespearean works and poetry anthologies.

But most of all, no matter what a book looks like, feels like, or smells like, I just love seeing rows upon rows of books. A copy of your favourite book could have the oddest cover art and a cracked spine, and it would still be an absolute gem in your eyes. And if that isn't the most magical thing, I don't know what is.

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What are your favourite types of books to buy? Do you prefer paperbacks or hardcovers? Let me know!