Books as Wall Art? Here's a Novel Idea...

Yesterday from 11 a.m. till 4 p.m. Bayfront Park hosted its annual Taste of Duluth festival, which features music in the park and all variety of vendors, from food and drink to miscellaneous crafts, jewelry, hot sauces, mixes, wall art, etc. The Republican and Democratic parties each had a tent on the west end of the walkway, with an aisle in between. Two of the featured bands were Laura Velvet & the Bookhouse Boys, and the Centerville All Stars. The music was great but the heat was stifling, and I'm guessing that half "the crowd that might have been" was sitting on a beach somewhere. Or swimming.

One of the vendors was The Pink Hammer Shop, an Etsy entrepreneur who makes mixed media signs and wall art featuring upcycled maps and books. As you likely know, I love books. Here are some images from Jennika Nevala's display interspersed with quotes about books, along with a link to her Etsy store at the end. Enjoy!

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends. ~ Dawn Adams

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors. ~ Joseph Addison

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. ~ Mortimer J. Adler

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. ~ Ray Bradbury

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. ~ Joseph Brodsky

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

The pleasure of reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books. ~ Katherine Mansfield

Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures. ~ Jessamyn West

Books had instant replay long before televised sports. ~ Bert Williams

To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry. ~ Gaston Bachelard

He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes. ~ Barrow

Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable. ~ Augustine Birrell

The mere brute pleasure of reading --the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing. ~ G.K. Chesterton

A room without books is like a body without a soul. ~ Marcus T. Cicero

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Related Links
The Pink Hammer Shop @ Etsy
For REAL books visit Zenith Bookstore in West Duluth

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Do you have a favorite quote about books? I'd like to hear it.