22 Comments
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Felice Vigil's avatar

Who can resist the smell of old books and old leather bound books at that! I was raised with books… as a result my children were raised with books. They knew I probably would not buy them another toy but another book … always . My 6 month old grandson has a bunch of books I purchased for him as well. My love for books lead me to a career as a school librarian ! I don’t give a rats rump about new clothes; but books ! I can never have enough.

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The Chronicler's avatar

Old book talk and Dan calling them must and dead skin.. Where else would descriptions paint such amazing pictures?? Worth every penny of the subscription.

Bravo!

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Valerie Franklin's avatar

You should never try to justify buying books. Even if you don’t need them, you neeeeed them, and these look and sound absolutely neeeeedable. Sorry if this sounds odd, but I strongly believe there’s no such thing as too many books!

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Steven Batty's avatar

Even though my bookcase is creaking at the seams I just cannot resist buying books. Just today I picked up a 4 volume set of books The History of England by Thomas Babington Macaulay for £5. Only got them for the old style embossed front and spines. Would love to be able to splurge on much older books though.

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S. G.'s avatar

You're in great company. Froissart was one of Barbara Tuchman's sources for Distant Mirror.

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Jean Spradlin-Miller's avatar

As a former librarian and (I think) an amateur historian, I love old books. I remember how excited I was when I obtained all four volumes of Theodore Roosevelt’s “Winning of the West.” It was copyrighted 1899, two years before he became President of the U. S. My sisters have been trying to help me weed out my book collection, and it’s been an agonizing ordeal. Keep the books on the Wars of the Roses, the Tudors, and the Middle Ages; also keep most U. S. history up to 1945. The remainder of the books had to face heavy review from me. My sisters think I should have let go of many more, but they are not bibliophiles as I am. They don’t understand!

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Maureen's avatar

What a great find- who doesn’t love primary source material ? Incidentally there are books bound in human skin though I do not own any

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Jean Spradlin-Miller's avatar

I actually saw one bound in human skin when I was in library school. It was in the possession of the University of Alabama archives.

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The Chronicler's avatar

Ew! 😱

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Maureen's avatar

Wow 😮

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Joy's avatar

Love, love, love!!! I have a set of "The Book of Knowledge" circa 1931 that arrived by train the day my dad was born. They're beyond precious to me. He instilled into me my love of books and knowledge!

My latest amazing find is a 1906 copy of "Pigs is Pigs" by Ellis Parker Butler

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Lydia Rodgers's avatar

“The smell of dead skin and must,” those words sound a bit morbid, but my heart sung when I read them. 😍

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Melanie R. Meadors's avatar

What a lovely purchase! This actually reminds me of a question I had--many of the primary sources you cite were obviously not written in English. I was wondering if you were able to read French or Latin to the extent that you could reference them in the original languages. I used to know both languages "sufficiently" but boy, it goes away after several years of disuse, I found!

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Amanda Kemp's avatar

That is amazing. 😍 I, for one, can’t resist an old book, or many books really lol. I love finding them whenever I can. I was quite proud of a copy of Jane Eyre I found recently. My oldest otherwise being from at least 1898. The book of hours in Chateau d’Amboise was such an incredible item to see as it is the oldest I have ever laid eyes on. And the illumination is spectacular. I hope to see more someday. Enjoy your reading!

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Tom Schwarz's avatar

Got to be honest looking at my phone in the VERY bright Iberian sunshine I wondered why you would show us a box of cigars…d’oh! My bad. You deserve the books man. Write on!

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Déborah's avatar

There will never be a better purchase or gift than a book

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Alex's avatar

Does anyone know where I can find a copy of William Marshall’s history?

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Karina Killey's avatar

I love books, and I’m delighted that my two granddaughters do as well. They are aged 10 and 8 but their reading ages are well above their year in school. Hubby and I read to our 3 every evening from a very early age and my older son and his wife have done the same with the girls. I just love second hand book shops. I picked up a couple of gems from the one in Warwick pre covid

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CJ Johnson's avatar

Fangirling out wildly in anticipation of the siege novel. Can’t wait!!!

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