Good Book, if you can get into your library

Yes, this house arrest scenario drives one back to old pastimes, like reading!

I've been digging into a few pre-digital photographic almanacs, and came across this mini-review from 1936.

A TLR with a revolving back! Sounds like a great idea, but I wonder why it didn't catch on. I thought I'd seen just about every type of camera going, but I ain't never seen one of those.

I might chance it for a good audio book, or even a bad audio book.

Ah but these are old school. Full analog, here. Actual books. :-)

My photography library. Enough to keep me busy for a while.[ATTACH=full]1335320[/ATTACH]

You have the Helen Levitt book that I have. Really a wonderful collection.

I think the book box is a great idea.

Hardly a significant disease vector.

If that were the case, we’d have to shut down mail, FedEx, and Amazon just to name a few.

Unfounded fear and panic serve no purpose.

I do not equate a neighborhood book box with a box left in the street in San Francisco.

Rational thought thusly prevails.

Rationality can involve less fun, but more safety.

Please disregard.

why sould we?

Actual books

Ricochet, this reminds me of the (original) movie, "The Time Machine." A scene which takes place thousands of years into the future, involves the character of H. George Wells going into a library accompanied by an Eloi. Upon trying to pick up a book, it crumbles to dust in his hand.

Rationality can involve less fun, but more safety.

Ever stop to think how irrational “safety” has become?

Construction worker drives to work in a dark colored car at 70 mph on an expressway among hundreds all governed by a simple painted line.

Upon arriving at work he puts on a fluorescent reflective vest to walk a mile an hour or so among others doing the same. Why are all vehicles not required to be the same color as the vest?

Pilots cannot have sidearms because that might put passengers at risk, having the controls of the plane at 500 mph at 30,000 feet is not a threat to anyone.

Metal detectors going into a courthouse somehow make the relative few entering safer on one side of it than the other......

Handicapped parking close to the entrance, handicap bathroom on the 25th floor above the fire exit.

Ricochet, this reminds me of the (original) movie, "The Time Machine." A scene which takes place thousands of years into the future, involves the character of H. George Wells going into a library accompanied by an Eloi. Upon trying to pick up a book, it crumbles to dust in his hand.

You may have a point, time machines will make books obsolete, no wait.....

Why not simply travel back for a good book......;)

Ricochet, this reminds me of the (original) movie, "The Time Machine." A scene which takes place thousands of years into the future, involves the character of H. George Wells going into a library accompanied by an Eloi. Upon trying to pick up a book, it crumbles to dust in his hand.

all books can coexist together ... even if they are from different periods :)

I just finished reading a good book, The Perfectionists ,by Simon Winchester, an author and journalist. He writes about how increasing manufacturing precision has enabled ever better products in modern times. . .When wearing his journalist hat he felt the need to carry a camera so his local camera store owner sold him a Leica M6 with a 35mm Summilux lens and he describes Leica's lens making process. He goes on to discuss telescopes, especially those used to explore distant galaxies. ...

Thanks for the book recommendation. I was able to check the book out as an EBook from my local library and download it to my computer. No one knows when the local library will again be physically open.

I had a Book years ago but I can’t bear witness to that (4)

Hmm... I'm reading a book

now... I'm up to page 2...

http://bayouline.com/o2.gif

Some light reading from our own shelves across time and subjects. In town there are enclosed, wooden book boxes at a library. People donate to the box and anyone can help themselves at any hour of day or night.

In my last year of college, about 45 years ago, we had an Encyclopedia Britannica salesman come through selling, you guessed it, the EB. Those of you at my stage of life may remember when encyclopedia salesmen (and Fuller Brush and Avon) came through neighborhoods and colleges, etc, selling their wares. In addition to the EB, this salesman was also offering the 54 volume Univ of Chicago Great Books of the Western World series. I had seen and used various of these books in my high school and college years for assignments and I liked them. The salesman, as good salesmen are wont to do, saw my interest and made me payment offers and threw in 'freebies' I couldn't refuse and so I was hooked. I bought. Well, but for my wife, they are the only acquisition I made 40+ years ago that I still have (I sold my NikonF about 20 years ago and my last lens from that era about a year ago). I proudly tell folks now that these books were one of the best purchases I ever made, they have provided me with hundreds of hours of entertainment and education through the years. Unlike my wife, and many folks here apparently, I do not enjoy reading books electronically or hearing them audibly. I want physical pages with print on them. Volumes 8 through 11 are in the still life shown here that I made a year ago to test a 4x5 view camera. In the present circumstance of sheltering in place I am re-reading some of the plays of Shakespeare and Euripides from this collection.

In the current post-modern age these books are anathema but for me they still provide a wealth of knowledge and inspiration. While I do find enjoyment, education and inspiration across of diverse array of authors they are not represented in this collection. In addition this collection ends around 1900 and much great stuff has been produced since then. But this stuff has withstood the test of time, post-modernism notwithstanding.

I believe in the value of the book, which keeps something irreplaceable, and in the necessity of fighting to secure its respect.

—Jacques Derrida, post-modernist