Hat-trick

The pleasure of receiving this limited edition, signed copy of The Goldfinch = Priceless...

Beautifully bound, wonderful edition. Just had to share. Thank you Commuter Book Club (my book fairies).

Winnings

I couldn't have been more thrilled last week when I received this absolutely beautiful Donna Tartt set from Bloomsbury Publishing.

And even more exhilarating: I won them in a Facebook competition. I was quite giddy with excitement when I found out that I was the winner ("Me? What, seriously? *squeal*"), as this is the first competition that I have ever won. And I have entered a fair few over the years! But, boy, what a prize...Worth £150, these two wonderful books – which are, of course, The Secret History and The Little Friend – are housed in an elegant fabric-covered box (note to self: put it where the dust can't get at it); inside, it just gets better:

Open the covers to reveal beautiful silver-edged pages and sumptuous silver and black end papers; and then turn over for Donna Tartt's signature in traditional, Venetian ink ( I picture her with a glass-tipped pen that she dips into an ink well a thousand times to sign these sets), with the limited edition number also handwritten in ink. If you can describe books as breathtaking, then, this pair of tomes would do it for me.

If I'm honest, they are so exquisite that I hardly dare open them, lest, actually read them. But it would be a sacrilege not to. I am, however, currently reading the paperback edition of The Little Friend, so perhaps I'll just peek at the pages every now and again...