Ode to the Vintage Book

by Rachel Phipps

Proactive young editor and longtime mook Rachel Phipps has set up Pilgrim's Proverb, an online second-hand and vintage bookshop. Don't we all hanker for a must-scented vintage book? So good, we could eat their binding...

I scowl every time I walk into a bookshop and see kindles stacked up on the shelf. To me, a book is something you hold in your hand, something you turn the pages of. I've tried reading Shakespeare's King Lear on my iPod (but only because you can get his entire works as a free app!) on the train but I just could not get used to reading the words on the screen rather than in print. For some reason I just can't get used to reading my literature on the screen, or really any form of technological advancement thats supposed to 'help' you read a book, except for audiobooks which are great and lightweight on the train, or when your hands are otherwise occupied. They're great when you're jogging!

Thinking about this, it struck me as odd that I'm so in love with having a book actually in my hand; I still love the feel of glossy magazines in my hand for example, but I read my newspaper and I digest most of my other media online from either my laptop or my Blackberry. I receive most of my news updates via Twitter. So what is it in this technological age that makes you love a good old fashioned book? I don't know about you, but I think its just the idea of having an entire story, so much interest and enjoyment just sitting there in your hands, the excitement of turning the page and that lovely new book smell it would be absolutely impossible for a mere gadget to emulate.

This brings me onto my overly obsessive and ultimate passion; old and vintage books. Instead of the new books smell you get that unbeatable old book smell, the beautiful leather bindings, hand cut pages, colour plates and little details that book makers just do not bother with these days. You start with all that, then think about how many other people have held that book before you, delighted in its pages and relished the tale. I always trey and give vintage books as gifts, I can't actually think of a better present than your own little piece of literary history!

Last November when it was horrible and snowing like crazy I was sitting at the kitchen table brainstorming with my mother as to what we could do to start a little online business, and I thought about what do we both absolutely love. Reading. And then I came back to my vintage book and vintage book shopping obsession. Thus, our little online vintage and second hand bookshop Pilgrims Proverb was born - I hope you enjoy our books as much as we enjoy finding them!

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