links with the past

I recently ordered some books from Amazon UK, one of which arrived yesterday. It's an old Left Book Club book from 1939 - Barbarians at the Gate by Leonard Woolf - red, a bit tattered, I love it.

It has this inscription, pictured above, in the front. I love it when secondhand books have inscriptions, especially slightly older ones, and especially in real ink. There's something about the way it soaks into the paper - it's very textured, it seems real. It's my link with the past. It's my antique. This inscription proves this book was published, that people read it, that people once picked up this book and cared about it enough to write their name in it.

And I consider the possibility that someday in the future a random person in a completely different country will pick up and flick through my books, and take pleasure out of seeing my name, date, location printed in the front.