Katya's Birthday Present

Three? years ago, Katya and I unofficially started sending each other birthday presents. I say unofficial because we didn't sit down one day and say, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if we sent each other presents on our birthdays?" Nope. I am not really sure how the pattern has continued all these years, but it's pretty fun. I realize it can't continue forever, so Katya, when you decide to stop sending presents, please warn me in advance so I'm not too depressed. :)

At any rate, I don't always have an idea of what to get Katya. I mean, I have a general idea since we enjoy a lot of the same things: fonts, bookbinding stuff, etc. But sometimes my presents just show up. Like in the case of this year. I happened to be somewhere important and discovered an old book for ridiculously cheap. The person selling it obviously had no idea that this book could be worth something to someone. I mean, the book was printed in 1897. The book is signed by somebody in 1901.

I loved it.

BUT. The book was about physics. And I knew someone who loved physics far more than I ever would. So, Katya's birthday present came into existence. And here it is on my blog; I took photos of it before I sent it off to her. Isn't it gorgeous? Yeah I probably could have restored it a bit as I learned how to do this summer in my book restoration class, but it has more character this way. I love old books. (Seriously. If you ever find one at a garage sale or something and feel like sharing, ship it on over to me.)