For a number of years now I have eagerly bought and
fortunately sold many local histories.
These histories are often, but not always, of smaller groups within
larger communities, some examples being surf life saving clubs or religious
groups… a few of which I’ve written
about previously. Recently I’ve become a little more selective as some of
these histories have inexplicably become not as popular as they once were. It’s either that, or my selection isn’t what
it once was and the decline in sales is not so much due to the market, but due
to the marketer (that’s me).
This lovely history of All Saints East St Kilda is a real
eye catcher… which is probably why it caught my eye. What is striking about it is the dust
jacket, which on first appearance is a generic all purpose design meant for any
book. It consists of a patterned crucifix and crown, which doesn’t take a
rocket scientist to figure out has some sort of religious significance and
therefore leads this bookseller to believe that it’s not generic and is a
design feature (… I could be wrong). There is no writing but it is slightly transparent,
allowing some of the larger text on the cover to be visible. This lends a sort of mystery to the book
which is what attracted my eye to it in the first place. The cover looks great as well and it’s not
often that I mention how beautiful the layout of a book is, but this one does
deserve a mention. It looks great. The people of All Saints East St Kilda should
be proud of their book.
Despite my appreciation for this books art and design, I do believe it’s going to be a sitter. One of those books that I will have for a while. This is purely down to the subject matter. The fact that it is of a Melbourne inner city church, means it has a little more history than an outer suburban church, and this is a definite plus. The church thing is where my faith stalls a little, but I’m happy to be wrong. (Maybe I’ll mention this one to the Bishop and see what he thinks.)
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