The first is the limited-edition Aio Publishing edition of Ian MacLeod's The Summer Isles. Amusingly, while the book was numbered #274 out of #500, MacLeod's signature did not appear on the page. Oh well, that's a minor issue considering the feel of this book, with its brown suede cover:
Beautiful, isn't it? The next book is a collection of stories by Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz, The Seventh Heaven. Published by The American University of Cairo Press, this book is just solid, with very heavy cardboard covers and glossy, coffee table book-like pages:
Hard to decide which of these I shall read first, but considering that I'm also a fan of other stories that each has written, at least I shall go into the reading with the expectation that the stories will be worth reading. And even if they are below each author's high standards, I can rest assured that at least these books will feel great in my hands.So, what about you? Any of you have any beautifully-bound books that you want to mention here to taunt/tempt us into wanting?