Altered Books - Deja Vu

I swear I never knew anything about Scott at Fine Books doing anything on Altered Books. There's nothing mentioned in his blog about it. So when my (July/Aug) copy of Fine Books & Collections arrived at my home today, I was stunned to see in big letters at the bottom left corner of the cover, the following words - Under the Knife ALTERED BOOKS.

Naturally of course I have to read the article first. Usually I would have read Nicolas Basbanes column first. That was actually the third item I read today because then I just had to read the article about Books in Films. The magazine lists 12 films related to books that are worth watching. I was VERY pleased to see probably my all time favourite book/film listed - 84 Charing Cross Road. I was also please to see mentioned, a Johnny Depp movie called The Ninth Gate, which I desperately want to watch - but cannot find anywhere in this city!!!

Fine Books & Collections and Connoiseur Magazines

My very first copy of Fine Books Magazine arrived in the mail today. It is of course the May/June 2007 issue featuring Antique Miniature Books. I have not been so wowed by a magazine since reading Connoisseur Magazine back in the 1980s and early 1990s.

I loved the Connoisseur magazine. Since I couldnt afford to buy them, I always used to borrow them from my local public library. For those of you who may remember that magazine, it was about Art & Antiques, and the editor (at the time I was reading it) was Thomas Hoving.

I met Mr Hoving for the first time in the pages of his excellent book "King of the Confessors". I fell in love with art history courtesy of this book. I have loved maps since I was a child, and now I have come full circle by adding antiquarian books to the list as well.

I do remember seeing a few antique map advertisements in Connoiseur, so there were probably some antiquarian bookseller ads in there as well. Then the library stopped stocking it. I'm still wondering what happened to Connoiseur.