new acquisitions

yesterday mark had the day off work, so we spent some time together to celebrate in advance of our 7th wedding anniversary this sunday (since i'll be working sunday and he will most likely be working on saturday, we thought we'd take the time while we had it). all in all, great day. i started off calling an old friend to get some tips for a second piece i've been asked to write for the age (woohoo!). then i got a call from another friend, clem, asking if i wouldn't mind popping in to the abc to help with an interview on the breakfast club. apart from being a producer/presenter on in the loop, he has a weekly segment on the breakfast show called 'indian eye'. this week he had in as a guest a girl called corrine davies, who is a performer with jhanak dance company, and who also has aspirations to become a bollywood actress. so i went in, and together with the presenters adelaine and phil, had a group chat/interview with corrine. it was great fun - it was my second time in the breakfast club studios, and i'm telling you, i'm pretty darn comfortable with a pair of headphones on my head and a mic in front of my face...

anyway, back to the day. we spent the afternoon having high tea at the windsor (and constantly comparing it to high tea at the national gallery of london, snobs that we are...). also made a purchase at the hill of content. neither of us has bought a book in a while, not to say that we're deprived of reading material (thank you city library!). anyway, my purchase. it looked good online, but it's even better in the flesh - it has one of those trendy recycled-paper covers and rough, uneven page ends (i once nearly bought a book i knew i wouldn't read just for those things, but now i am glad i saved myself for this one). and it smells great, too. it is the portable dorothy parker, and this is what its face looks like -

and this is what the inside back cover flap looks like:

my dilemma is this - i envision myself lugging this book around a lot, and am afraid of damaging it. but if i put clear contact on it, there goes the lovely feel of the cover. oh, what to do?