December 18, 2020

Freezing up.

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203 comments:

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Narr said...

Our public library takes donated books (actually the Friends of the Library take them) and have a big sale every year. At least they used to. Even this place has a pretty literate populace and books are so plentiful that most end up going for pennies on the dollar if they go at all--the ones that don't get sold for pulp or just dumped.

Cook's story is like many I've seen. Some of the professor's and collector's libraries I've seen were almost toxic from vermin infestation, dirt, rat- and pigeon-shit, mold . . . I never let anything into the building (if I could help it) that was too skanky.

Not to mention, unless a book is on acid-free paper it's likely to crumble away in a few decades anyway. Not to mention, mass-market books and book club editions are usually not bound to last (ha bound to last).

Just to gloat a bit about my professional good fortune. Despite some truly revolting aspects of campus and library life, I was in charge of the rare books. The designation included incunabula, early American/Southern/Confederate imprints, first editions, regional authors etc etc etc.

But the stuff I enjoyed working with as far as bound volumes were the expensive facsimiles of things like Humboldt and Bonpland's set of volumes of maps, charts, statistics, sketches, and botanical paintings. Or the Atlas Maior of J. Blaeu (Amsterdam, 1662-1672),
or the facsimiles of the Dresden and Madrid/Tro-Cortesianus Codices--Mayas y'all!

The irony is that these magnificent objects, testimonies to a great age, were just about totally unused by a university with 800 faculty and thousands of grad students. I put them on display sometimes, or used them for the show-and-tells I could do for visiting crowds, which were diverse in race, class, gender, age, and degree of difficulty.

I miss the books more than I miss the people-most of us boomers are gone anyway.

Narr
I haven't missed a day of work since I retired





Robert Cook said...

I'm happy you found something meaningful in my anecdote, Hercules....

Anonymous said...

Robert Cook- The thing I found meaningful was buried in your experience.

Going to the Thrift Store tomorrow. I'm going mobile, and need to travel light.

I disagree with everything you normally post, but you did me a service. These things are not forgotten.

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