Books & baubles

I love coffee table books but will never pay full price for them. Sometimes I find them used in thrift stores, but that's rare. More often than not they're in discount book places or second-hand book stores.

I discovered this Vanity Fair book containing the best photos and articles from the 1920s-30s, for only $16 when doing a shopping column in the Leaside Business Park in Toronto (on old industrial park - see my Twitter updates for all links to my shopping columns).

This book has something on everyone, from Isadora Duncan to Carl Sandburg to the Ziegfelds - pretty much every artist, actor, political thinker or author you could think of crammed into an era's worth of a book that's in great condition.

Sigh. Does it seem that we have less people like that in the world at the moment? Glamour like it exists in these pages doesn't seem to be a reality today - we're too busy de-glamourizing everything from celebrity life to TV programming.

These baubles have nothing to do with Vanity Fair or the 1920s and 30s, but they were all found at thrift shops for cheap and exude a certain amount of glam.

There are several clear crystal-like necklaces from the 1950s I found lately wound around a hanger as you see here, along with a multi-tier red necklace that was only a few dollars at Goodwill.

They look like glittery little candies hanging here, don't they?