dante

How attracted are you to old books? The older the better? I must confess I love books in general, but I am fascinated by old books.

This fascination has gone on for a long time. Yes, I will stop and look at any (attractive) book, but if it is old I will really relish it. I have a handful of old books, which I enjoy, but part of the thrill is in discovering them: at garage sales, old bookstores, who knows where one is going to see an old book.

Our library has an antique book collection which I sometimes visit. Obviously, the old books are very delicate, so we limit their viewing, but it is still a pleasure to be surrounded by such treasures. Unfortunately, it is difficult to read old books, precisely because they are brittle and fragile so just being in the presence of them and even being able to handle them is a thrill.

In my striving for a simpler life, I am committed to only having 100 books at home, the oldest one is not particularly old, a 1944 edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy. In my office I have a handful of technical/professional books, and in Spain I have another handful. For someone as passionate about books as I consider myself to be, I think I own remarkably few books.

What old books do you have? Or have seen? Tell me in the comments below.

I have the privilege of working on a beautiful campus. There is a pond smack in the middle, there are a couple of gazebos for meditating, there is a beautiful chapel (arguably the most beautiful building in Boynton Beach), there is even a tree swing! There is also a beautiful library. It is not a massive library, it is rather quaint by university standards but still, it is a lovely library.

This is where it gets interesting: In order to get to my office, you have to go through or around the library, through is the much faster route.

So not only do I walk by the periodicals section where I can -at a glance- look at the new magazines coming in, then I lower my blood pressure by walking through the peaceful, quiet stacks, and right before getting to my office, there is a shelf with free books that the library no longer wants. This is my perdition.

I wrote about libraries and bookstores recently (ok, a year and a half is recently for dinosaurs like me), but that was before I had to work next to the goodie room that is the “Free books” shelves outside my office!

Over the months I have collected many varied books. My most recent find – and the detonator for this blog – was a first edition 1944 Divine Comedy with drawings by William Blake. Last year a retired history professor went into an assisted living facility, and he donated his whole library! It was chock-full of great books of which I got a good number of. And since my office is next door to these books, I always have first choice. In fact, sometimes I have even help the librarian stack the free books as he rolls them out!