Restoring the tactile appeal of books.

Byline: Alex Dodd

Restoring the tactile appeal of books RUE Bonaparte is one of those chi-chi little streets in the Saint-Germain-de-Pres district of Paris's left bank, ideal for poodle walking and general fashionable promenading. On the corner, just next door to Yves Saint Laurent, is a gilded shoe-box shop, selling not diamonds, not macaroons, not miracle antiaging serums, nor couture stilettos but books. These are not the everyday, aesthetically unassuming publications you buy at your local bookshop, or pick up dog-eared and secondhand at the charity fete, though. These are glorious, technicolor, glossy-paged tomes exploring the tasteful excesses and sensual splendours of contemporary human life. This is Assouline. Step inside and enter the …