take note

As a man of letters, I'm speaking of actual missives not just talking as a writerly person, I have found a new interesting blog. Well, it's new to me. Cleaning out my parents' attic over the past few weeks I came across several caches of priceless hand-written letters—letters from my grandfather to my grandmother during the second World War, letters from my cousin in Alabama chronicling her life as an early teen and attendant drama, letters to/from my brother from his college years at Davidson and at King's College in London (including a wonderfully saucy one from one brother to another)—and as I collected these tangible treats, I thought how my niece and nephew might miss you on such treasures, such tangible records of their lives, should all of heir correspondence be electronic. No more pens put to paper. No one will clean out their attics and ponder wistfully over old YouTube directories and Facebook posts.

The blog which caught my eye is Letters of Note, which singles out different physical epistles each post and offers insight, commentary or reflection on, well, letters of note.

As long as we're talking about the written word, another wonderful gem crossed my path this week: a startup company offering hand crafted antique books—be they law journals, medical tomes, or cookbooks—handcrafted to conceal a hand-crafted Italian glass flask within.

Now these are books I could really get into.

Bender Bound: Each item is made to order and takes six to eight weeks to fulfill, so no luck ordering for the holidays this year. Which is sad because I really wanted to get Jay one of those big boring law books with a bottle within for his office. Each one runs about $130, with pre-orders discounted to $100. The lads are seeking capital funding to continue and grow their business. On a side note, they proudly note that "No hipsters were employed during the crafting of our books."