Some of the best fun I ever had as a late teen in the convent was working in the library. We had to repair books, sometimes even recover them. So I learned how to bind a book and make a book cover. My late friend Martha and I made two books ourselves from scratch. Martha did the calligraphy, I wrote the stories, and we both worked on binding and making the covers--cutting, sewing, pasting. The first one, Agnes, was about an African violet. I forget what the other one was, though I can still see it. It was long, thin, and covered in black fabric with a red title.
Watching this TED talk brought all of this back:
What an interesting skill you acquired!!!! I envy you!!! That's a job I would of loved!!!
ReplyDeleteThe video is awesome!!!! I'm an unrepentant Luddite when it comes to books!!!
I loved the line about the Kindle!!!! There's something about holding a book in one's hands that I've always loved. Books have always been my friends and I doubt that will ever change.
Kay: I love books, too. and I just read this past week, that if you want to remember something, read it in a REAL BOOK! the whole physicality helps you remember! Can't get that from one of those tablet things....
ReplyDeleteExactly!!! Falling asleep with a volume of Dostoyevsky/whatever is soooooo much nicer than an imprint of plastic on one's cheek!!! My personal library is over 600 books and I still haven't catalogued all of them.
ReplyDeleteNice collection!! I sort of half catalogued mine this past year--that is I sorted them by various categories in alphabetical order, but then my son moved in for a while, and they got rearranged a bit. That's ok....love it when visitors read & borrow my books. Love it even more when they return them!!
ReplyDeleteI've been putting my library at The Library Thing. In fact, I think you're the one who told me about it!!! There's a link on my blog.
DeleteInformative, amusing video; thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteMy German (text-book) publisher had a 'corprate identity', so that all of his books looked similar and could be recognised as his. A colour-coded ring told (him) what the intended public was.
My English (text-book) publisher had flashy but abstract patterns.
Neither had a book-designer like the one in your video, designing covers which characterised & summarised the content yet while screaming 'Buy this book'. FWIW, the Pratchett paperbacks (Art by Josh Kirby) I find to be the best in cover art.
@Kay,
we have about 8000 books - the walls are full - uncatalogued, but somehow 'sorted' on their shelves, probably roughly by non-contiguous Dewey??? Some books I have twice, because I forgot at the airport that I already had a copy. Great disappontment on the plane :-(
Kay: I remember that! Congratulations for keeping up with it.
ReplyDeleteStu: Six THOUSAND books!? Don't you just love every one, too?
Stu: Oops...EIGHT thousand! Yikes!
DeleteWhen villagers come in for the first time they tend to say "What a lot of books, have you read all of them?" To which I reply smugly "No (pause...) I wrote nine of them" ;-)
DeleteStu: What a great line...I'll bet you live for those visits!! *:0)
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