A week or two ago, I was searching for guestbook options, and came up with idea of getting one of Tolkien’s books re-bound into a guestbook. After that post, I hopped on my bicycle and made my rounds of some of the used bookstores nearby, hoping to find an old, worn, lonely copy of The Two Towers, or an affordable hardcover 3-book set. The first used bookstore I went to had two hardcover 3-book sets, no lonely volumes. One set was a second edition in a box, and cost $400. It was gorgeous, and I wanted it, but not to cut up! I wanted to buy it and put it on my shelf and call it ‘precious’. I might have petted it for a bit in the store before (reluctantly) giving it back to the bookseller. The second set was newer (1980s), not so precious, but the books were reddish orange, and the only thing stamped onto the front cover (because I’d be using it without the slipcover) was the writing that is on the One Ring.
(graphic from Vodka Pomme)
Very Tolkien, but a little…menacing? Portentous? (I’m quite the Tolkien geek, but I’ve never quite understood people who get their wedding rings engraved with ‘One ring to rule them all/one ring to find them/one ring to bring them all/and in the darkness bind them’ either.)
I also had no luck at a second used bookstore, and Chapters. At Chapters, I could buy just The Two Towers, but once you took the slipcover off, it was just a black hardcover (when the books get re-bound, the spine gets taken away, so the printing needed to be on the front cover).
I gave up for a few days, then Cinnamon Buns and I tried an even larger used bookstore, and they had a few lonely volumes of the trilogy! But even better, we found this:
I own this book in paperback, and have read and enjoyed it a few times (one of my favourite stories is in the chapter about the Drúedain, and is called ‘The Faithful Stone’) but I hadn’t thought about it for a guestbook option. Cinnamon Buns thought the title was pretty appropriate. Then we took the slipcover off and looked underneath:
It’s our wedding green! And has a very pretty device on the front cover. We decided then and there: we bought it, brought it home, marked a few particular pages to be included when it is re-bound (the title page, ‘The Faithful Stone’, a map, etc) and stuffed it in a envelope. Now, I’d left this pretty late, and Canada Post was threatening to strike, so we sent it UPS to the Etsy seller RenovatedBooks. He’ll have to UPS/Fed Ex it back so we get it on time, so it’s going to be a bit of an expense, but I think it will be worth it.
And before you worry that we’re destroying something rare, you can buy this edition of the book on Abe Books for $3.99, so we’re OK. We just didn’t have the time to wait to buy it that cheaply.
Have you left things until the last minute and then had to scramble?
Latest Gallery Pics