Book in the Mail

This is where the friendly neighborhood mailroom guy drops off packages for me--on the wooden stool beside my desk.

And what should I find there yesterday but a surprise package from my favorite online source for fabric and other sewing-related items, Purl Soho?

What could it be, lurking inside this luscious pink and orange wrapping?

(these are, coincidentally, a very close approximation to the colors we had at our wedding...)

Why, it's an adorable sewing book! A gift from my super nice Dad. Simple Modern Sewing by Shufu To Seikatsu Sha.

Now, as you might guess, I spend a lot of time thinking about books. But that mental energy is devoted almost entirely to art books and to fiction. 

So, while I know there is a booming market in Japanese sewing books (both imports from Japan, and English editions of originally-Japanese books from American publishers, like this one), its an area I really know very little about.

Which, in a way, makes it all the more of a pleasure to page through a volume such as this one. Because the conventions of the genre within which is is operating are unknown to me, it's loveliness feels very fresh and serendipitous--even a bit mysterious--to me.

The enjoyment of looking at something with untrained eyes, particularly when you are used to looking at similar somethings with all your critical faculties in play, is a delight not to be underestimated.