Luxury Stores book review

I have been saving all my favorite books, or books I want to own, in my Amazon wish list since 2001. It's now 2011 and I finally made my first purchase off the list! I've been hesitant in buying books in the past, because I had quite the vagabond lifestyle. Trust me, lugging around heavy books is the worst thing when the time comes to pack-up and move. Now that I finally found my nesting ground (I'll be living here as long as I have my job and mortgages to pay), I feel somewhat safe to start a book collection!

Since I'm needing inspiration to decorate my new "boutique-theme" bedroom, I decided to order this first:

Luxury Stores Top of the World 

(bought on sale ~$26)

I learned about this from one of those Vogue or Bazaar fashion magazine book recommendations back in 2009. At the time, I think this was selling for almost $100! It dipped to $60 range last few years I checked, and finally it reached the $20-30's range this winter.What great timing for me! And they only have a handful left in stock too. I'm very happy to get a hold of this book. I was a bit bummed that the outer box shell arrived a bit torn and rumpled, but luckily the inside was still sealed freshly in plastic wrap.

This book is chock-full of beautiful photographs. In fact, it's mostly all pictures (my kind of books, haha). At first glance, I started freaking out that the texts were all in French or something, but later realized that it does have English text and includes French, Spanish, German maybe?, and some other language translations for all the captions.

I can probably spend days in this book. If you are a window-shopper or a design-junkie, you'll definitely love this! This book is super heavy though, heavier than any school reference books I used in the past. The weight is due to the 396 pages of thick paper (not the flimsy stuff that tears easily). I haven't gone through the entire book, but so far, my favorite photo is actually the back cover, which is the perfect color scheme/idea for my new bedroom!

Amethyst crystal chandelier- how amazing is that!

(this photo is from Apropos-The Concept Store, Dusseldorf) 

I absolutely love this book! BTW, this will make a great X-mas gift for anyone who loves fashion, shopping, decor and design!