More Praise of Real Books

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More Praise of Real Books

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1LolaWalser
Editado: Ago 31, 2013, 1:19 pm

Continuation of: In Praise Of Real Books

The other thread won't load for me.

Covers! Judge them, judge them by their covers, do!

Bound to be Beautiful

2Existanai
Editado: mayo 12, 2011, 11:55 pm

It seems to load fine for me.

Anyway, I love the Chivers cover for the Kipling:



I'd love to get the Arabian Nights too, if it were priced at about 1% of what it is now.

3pgmcc
mayo 15, 2011, 4:59 pm

A friend of mine has demonstrated a tremendous faith in "real books" or he is showing signs of total madness. He has opened an independent bookshop in the middle of Dublin.

I wish him well and will be supporting him in his very Bohemian styled "Loft Bookshop". Photos will follow...

4LolaWalser
mayo 15, 2011, 5:13 pm

Regards and best of luck to him! "The middle of Dublin" doesn't sound too bleak for such an enterprise. A friend of mine spent three years there and according to her it's quite cultured (I suppose you should know... ;))

Where there is foot traffic, there is hope for the small bookseller, I think.

5pgmcc
mayo 15, 2011, 5:35 pm

Well now; foot traffic.

I did mention to him that a small room at the top of a flight of stairs that one accesses by going through a coffee shop is probably not going to have a massive footfall. He was quite stoic and said, "I want to attract the real book lover who will become a regular. I'm going for quality, not quantity."

His stock is definitely not "Dan Brown" or "Stephanie Meyer". It is a wonderful place to browse & chill. I hope he succeeds in struggling against the tide. He will have my support, and probably a lot of my book-buying euros.

I'll pass on your good wishes.

6LolaWalser
mayo 15, 2011, 5:52 pm

Yes, please do!

Does he own the space? Most non-owners here are killed by rent.

7absurdeist
mayo 15, 2011, 10:47 pm

I inherited this here Moby Dick from a dearly departed uncle. You R.I.P., Uncle Herbert! And if you can somehow hear me, thanks for the book!

It's a leather bound Easton Press ed. from 1977. Sits behind glass, like some lladro figurine, though the book is worth much, much less than that lladro. But at least it looks nice, I think.

8pgmcc
mayo 16, 2011, 3:53 am

#6

No, he doesn't own it. I believe he is renting from the coffee shop. Apparently the coffee shop is a night club and arts venue at night, so they may give him a decent rate on the shop to keep it as a feature for the premises. We shall see.

9pgmcc
mayo 16, 2011, 3:54 am

#7 Nice book, EF. I'm sure you're uncle would be pleased it is in the hands of someone who appreciates it.

10Makifat
mayo 17, 2011, 11:07 am

The Moby Dick put me in mind of Rockwell Kent, an American illustrator, painter, and author whose Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska I read as a young man. Like some of London's work, his is infused with the pure heady oxygen of the Superman, and he fairly brims with an enthusiasm that he expresses with a crystalline clarity. I've been afraid of revisiting him - afraid that the intervening years of jadedness would render him unpalatable....

Pardon the digression.

11LolaWalser
mayo 17, 2011, 12:14 pm

Not at all, my pretty Folio Soc. Moby Dick uses Kent's illustrations (not so EF's EP above, I think--Boardman?), like them very much, didn't know he also wrote.

12SilentInAWay
mayo 17, 2011, 4:28 pm

>7 absurdeist:

Do you have any idea when your Uncle Herbert acquired that volume (unfortunately, the copyright dates on Easton Press books are often not very helpful, for the same edition is sometimes reprinted for decades with no indication on the copyright page). I ask because, although the cover design of that particular volume has stayed more or less the same for 30 years, EP's manufacturing process has changed over the years, resulting in different looks and feels for books bound in different decades. I hope you don't mind my asking...I'm just trying to visualize your inheritance (yeah, I know, I'm way too into this stuff).

13Makifat
mayo 17, 2011, 6:00 pm

11
For some reason, when I think Moby Dick, I think Rockwell Kent. Not sure why, except maybe he was the foremost illustrator when Melville was "re-discovered" in the early 20th century. (See also Herman Melville (1929) by Lewis Mumford, another American original.)

14Makifat
mayo 17, 2011, 6:01 pm

12
yeah, I know, I'm way too into this stuff

Silent, we're all way too into this stuff. That's why we're here. ;)

15LolaWalser
mayo 17, 2011, 6:05 pm

#14

Have you seen Silent's thread in the Easton Press group? I think he gets a category all to himself after all. ;)

There was a very cool thread on Moby Dick illustrators in the Folio group... lemme see if I can dig it out...

16LolaWalser
mayo 17, 2011, 6:11 pm

Turns out there were a zillion scattered convos, and dedicated threads... here's a search listing, if it works:

Moby Dick pictures

17absurdeist
Editado: mayo 17, 2011, 8:06 pm

9> thanks!

11> Wow! You're good, Lola. Yes, illustrated by Boardman Robinson.

12> I love that you and Maki and everybody here are way into this stuff. I've no idea when my uncle got the book. It and the EP of Great Expectations were given to me shortly after he died. I could scan the spine if that might help you determine which printing.

18absurdeist
mayo 17, 2011, 8:17 pm

In case this helps identify the printing ...

19LolaWalser
Editado: Jun 7, 2011, 2:48 pm

I tried to pose my delicious, itty-bitty Le diable amoureux to show both size and colour (hence the fruit garnish) and FAILED MISERABLY at both, but. I still want to praise it!

It is small, it is intensely pink, it is leather bound (soft, creamy), it is the cutest book I own. I have seen several other volumes from that series (publisher was Le club francais du livre, 1960s), they originally came with glassine wrappers. Unfortunately, although the original colour of the leather on other volumes was clearly wonderful (eggplant, cream, pea-green), the spines were sunned and worst of all, the books had a strong mouldy smell. So I passed.

But, my pink delight (click to embiggen):





20Makifat
Jun 7, 2011, 4:02 pm

Now I'm going to have to think about what might be the cutest book I own...

21marietherese
Jun 7, 2011, 11:02 pm

Love that eye-popping pink! So pretty!

22pgmcc
Jun 8, 2011, 3:36 am

#19
When my brother Sean was getting married his fiancé bought some shocking pink shoes with six-inch high platforms (it was the early 1970s) as part of her truso. She showed them to my mother and asked her what she thought.

"They're a nice colour!" was her response.

"You don't like them, do you?" retorted my sister-in-law to be.

"They're a nice colour" became our family code for saying "I don't really like them" without saying "I don't really like them". :-)

The colour of your book reminded me of that event.

Unlike the shoes above, I do like your book.

24SilentInAWay
Sep 7, 2011, 7:31 pm

23> temptress!! -- the ones that catch my eye are all either already sold or on sale for thousands of dollars...

25LolaWalser
Sep 8, 2011, 3:28 pm

Ain't that lucky.

I've dropped the interwebs shopping almost completely, due to the abominable lousiness of Canada Post. But September is the month of library sales all across this city...

26SilentInAWay
Sep 8, 2011, 3:46 pm

Ah...where I live, a library sale is unfortunately nothing to get excited about...

27LolaWalser
Sep 8, 2011, 3:51 pm

Oh, not so here. The U of Toronto colleges get some amazing donations, and the public library's treasure sale (worked this year on by yours truly) is well worth a visit. Especially this year, as last year was skipped and the goodies accumulated. I only wish I had hundred times the shekels!

28SilentInAWay
Sep 8, 2011, 4:01 pm

27> worked this year on by yours truly

more liked worked over, I bet....heh heh!!

29LolaWalser
Sep 8, 2011, 4:09 pm

Ha! Yes, some invidious remarks about "foxes in henhouses" and "kids in candy-shops" have been made. But fortunately for all involved, my interests aren't all that well represented by the stock.

30AsYouKnow_Bob
Sep 8, 2011, 7:51 pm

... and the public library's treasure sale (worked this year on by yours truly) is well worth a visit.

Hmm. TPL's page just describes ongoing 'store' sales.... are you saying they ALSO have a "treasure sale"?

31LolaWalser
Sep 9, 2011, 11:15 am

Yes! The public library has several in-library bookstores; the treasure sale is a separate annual event, a drunken three-day book binge.

You should have planned, Bob... damn, I'd forgotten--this year somebody donated a ton of sf first editions with superbly preserved dustjackets. I think I priced most of them--and most at or over 20 dollars (meaning that free-range prices average in hundreds...)

32SilentInAWay
Sep 9, 2011, 4:25 pm

YouKnow, if we ain't in hell yet, Lola's gonna make damn sure we're on the right highway...

(cue AC/DC as visions of lost opportunities dance through our heads).

33LolaWalser
Sep 9, 2011, 4:38 pm

Are you suffering yet?

I have another shift of pricing to go through tomorrow. It's the antiquarian table that attracts me the most now, with all this talk of books dying out etc. And nostalgia. For the days of craftsmanship; even the pretty-pretty aesthetics of yesteryear.

34AsYouKnow_Bob
Sep 9, 2011, 8:01 pm

And you keep hinting that this 'Treasure Sale" is IMMINENT.

... yet it's not even alluded to on the TPL page.

35LolaWalser
Sep 10, 2011, 12:15 pm

http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM90962&R=90962

Yeah, I hear the Friends complain about the un-obviousness of the posting. But the people "in the know" are in the know!

36LolaWalser
Sep 10, 2011, 12:17 pm

Weirdly, it doesn't even indicate the sale runs through Sunday! (Last day a lot of what's left over goes for half the price.)

37AsYouKnow_Bob
Editado: Sep 10, 2011, 12:22 pm

Thanks!

(This Thursday at 10:00? I've done book expeditions nearly as silly, but this one is not quite plausible for me, I'm afraid....)

38LolaWalser
Sep 10, 2011, 12:48 pm

Oh, no, it would be a pity to rush this--you'd need to plan a serious expedition covering as many sales as possible...

39LolaWalser
Editado: Sep 14, 2011, 4:49 pm

I chanced upon a sweet edition of Lysistrata illustrated by Norman Lindsay (of The magic pudding fame), and, his love of bubbies is obvious and infectious. Only one picture for now...



40LolaWalser
Sep 28, 2011, 4:57 pm

Most expensive single book sold at the TP library sale: first edition of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. And sorry, Bob, all the sf sold...

I didn't buy much (there's the International Antiquarian Fair coming up, and several university sales), here's one, a French children's geography book from 1900 or so:



I love how SERIOUS are the woodcuts. No detail spared.

41pgmcc
Oct 3, 2011, 7:04 pm

The link below will bring you to a short film called "A Mild Case of Bibliomania". It was made by Ray Russell of Tartarus Press and traces his relationship with books from the time he was a child.

I think it is a lovely story and it certainly struck me as praise for books. I hope you all enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7h7-aIZRhhs

42theaelizabet
Oct 3, 2011, 7:44 pm

>41 pgmcc: Just lovely. Thanks.

43LolaWalser
Oct 4, 2011, 5:19 pm

Wonderful! You should post it in the Chapel of Abyss too, Peter, Ben will love the Machen shelf!

44LolaWalser
Editado: Dic 24, 2011, 1:35 pm

So RED and so GOLD!

George Bell & Sons edition of four W. S. Gilbert Savoy operas from 1909:

45rocketjk
Ene 25, 2012, 10:46 am

Wow. Just found this group. I, too, love "real books." In fact, I'm coming up on my one-year anniversary as owner of a used bookstore in that great metropolis, Ukiah, California, the county seat of Mendocino County! I wanted to use the slogan "Books on Shelves!" but got dissuaded.

Don't have much of an online presence, yet, but my website is here: www.villagebooks-ukiah.com.

As far as artwork's concerned, I love the old paperbacks as well as the beautiful old hard covers . . .

46LolaWalser
Ene 31, 2012, 10:27 am

Hi, rocket! I like old-timey typography too. Do post pictures if you come across other interesting stuff. How's the book business going?

47pgmcc
Ene 31, 2012, 3:27 pm

A friend of mine posted an article pertinent to this thread on his website:

http://johnrichardkenny.com/2012/01/27/books-vs-ebooks-why-books-get-my-vote/

48LolaWalser
Feb 14, 2012, 11:07 am

I'm very disappointed to hear about stuff only available electronically! To me that's a hallmark of the self-published wretcheds, not someone like Toibin...

49pgmcc
Feb 15, 2012, 3:02 pm

#48 Hi, Lola.

I know where you're coming from and would agree that is likely to be the case with many, if not most, "e" only publications, but I know at least one author, R.F. Long, whose publisher always publishes their authors' works electronically first and then, if they sell well, they launch a physical version.

In addition, I noticed that Nick Harkaway's publisher has launched an "e" only short story as a marketing ploy to whett appetites in advance of the US launch of his new novel, Angelmaker.

But in general, I agree.

Are you referring to A Guest at the Feast? (Damned touchstones.) I would suggest that many of his fans would want the physical book and would not be the proud owners of e-readers of any sort, let alone one tied to a particular on-line retailer.

Keep well. I hope 2012 is treating you well.

50LolaWalser
Feb 16, 2012, 4:27 pm

Can't complain, Peter (no wait, yes, I can, always, LOTS!)--hope all is well with you too.

Just the idea that a literary work isn't available in some material way is very bizarre to me. Even if they limited the print runs, it would be better than nothing. How sad is it to imagine a writer without a single real book to his name?

51pgmcc
Editado: Feb 18, 2012, 10:59 am

#50 How sad is it to imagine a writer without a single real book to his name?

I agree. It almost seems immoral.

Of course, I have read a couple of books which made me think the world would be a better place if their authors were without a physical or virtual book to their name. :-)

Thankfully all is well with me and the family.

We are starting to realise how little time there is between now and June 30th when one of our daughters is getting married.

53pgmcc
Oct 28, 2012, 1:22 pm

Hi, Lola

I remember getting some of the books that one constructs a ship from. Not the exact one pictured, but the same idea. It was a great thrill. Awww! The innocence of it all.

54LolaWalser
Oct 28, 2012, 1:44 pm

Oh, those are still around. I gave as gifts books with airplane plates more than once in recent years. Kids get to tear out a page AND make it fly.

55LolaWalser
Nov 30, 2012, 4:24 pm

Possibly the most beautiful books ever:

Japanese Crepe Paper Fairy Tales

"The crêpe-paper books in this collection were published mainly in the Meiji era by Hasegawa Kobunsha. Each picture drawn by the artist was cut on a woodcut, one woodcut for each color used in the picture. The printer applied the color to the woodcut, making a print on Japanese paper each time a different color was added. As to the story, each word was set in type, or, in some cases, in handcarved letters.

56rocketjk
Nov 30, 2012, 6:10 pm

#55> I've got a copy of one of those in my bookstore. Number 24, The Old Woman Who Lost Her Dumpling:



57LolaWalser
Nov 30, 2012, 6:11 pm

OMG HOW MUCH PM ME PLEASE!

58tomcatMurr
Nov 30, 2012, 7:21 pm

LOL
and me please! Lola, let's start a bidding war!!!!!

59LolaWalser
Dic 1, 2012, 10:19 am

And you sitting amidst all that Far Eastern glory! No fair!

How are antiquarian shops in Taiwan?

60tomcatMurr
Dic 2, 2012, 9:26 pm

up until recently, not so good. But one just opened a few months ago near the university.

http://blog.yam.com/jxjbooks/article/48870521

The shop itself is a lovely place to pass the afternoon. Stock is mostly in Chinese, with some European languages, but very little English.

61LolaWalser
Ago 31, 2013, 1:14 pm

A book of stories for children by Marcel Aymé, designed and illustrated by Jacques Carelman with beautiful fold-out illustrations combining collage and graphics. Quite startling for a children's book.

Oscar et Erick, 1961 (video presentation)

62LolaWalser
Dic 30, 2014, 12:43 pm