Bookish

I almost called this post "Love Story Part Two," because that is how much I love books. I love them so much I think it might be a problem. So much that I always want to buy anything that even reminds me of books. Right now, I'm really, really tempted by the amazing jewelry of Etsy seller Julieinwilkes' shop, Inspired by History. She makes these incredible necklaces with souvenir picture lockets, tiny books that fold out into a sequence of old pictures of scenic locations. Who could possibly resist the Nature Enthusiast's Delight, with the tiny binoculars and the little red book of 1960s photos from the Wisconsin Dells?

I can't even resist anything that looks like print -- like the newspaper purse from yesterday's post, or this Distorted Diary bag by designer Lucie Pritchard, available at All Things Original.

I'd like to buy a mix bag of these buttons and sew them onto a black cardigan.

And then there are all the things you can buy that have been made out of books, like this American Literature Book Belt Buckle from MaxineDearest. Some people (like my mother) find it unsettling to see books cut apart to make fashion accessories. I like to think of it as giving new life to a book that might have been mulched and sent to the landfill.

Which is why I've been thinking about getting a book purse. Maybe a book clutch like this one from Nerdbomber -- so simple and cute!

Or a shoulder bag purse, like this one from SackReligious.

If I had the money, of course, I would go with the top-of-the-line book purse: one of the gorgeous book-shaped clutches from Femme Sud.

Or maybe I'll just keep my eye out for the perfect purse book that needs to be rescued and reworked, and try altering it myself. I would do it in a second if I found one of these books.

(The Brown Satchel Mystery, by Betsy Allen; The Empty Purse, by George Meredith; The Power of the Purse Strings: Do Congressional Budgets Restrain? by Richard Forgette; The Case of the Golddigger's Purse, by Erle Stanley Gardner; A Clutch of Constables, by Ngaio Marsh; The Purse, by Honore de Balzac)