Oh, we’ve never had enough bookshelf space for all of our books, and, of course, the more we read, the more quickly we would run out of space. Cartons of books would end up going to the local ladies village improvement society to be resold and re-purposed.
One of the great joys of hardcover books was being able to pass them along to friends. Many of them would never return, but no matter.
MS robbed me of the ability to read hardcover books, almost 2 decades ago, but a Dartmouth classmate surprised me with a first generation, Amazon kindle. Suddenly, I was off and running again. The only drawback to reading electronically is that you can no longer “loan“ a really good book to a friend when you’re done reading it. Of course, the flipside to that problem is that my Kindle never runs out of bookshelf, space.
The whole subject of books and musical scores/sheet music saddens me. They seem to have gone the way of antique furniture. What we considered to be beautiful and treasured is, in today’s world, simply wood .
Everything moves too quickly. Everything is time leg zero. Nobody wants to slow down and savor the precious moment which is the “present.”
Yes we have been so programmed for speed and taught this scarcity mindset that we must hold on instead of share books with each other! I love sharing books and find it fun to see notes and highlights in the corner -- swapping books can be quite intimate and can help heal the oceans between us. I hear you about sharing a good book and not finding its way back home. Nowadays where people do not seem to care about books, I find it fun to seek out additional copies. Humor Ms. Soapbox for a moment: my fantasy is building a really good community library with a music library! And to hint at another installment coming soon -- a barn for all the ball gowns! It seems silly to keep them in the attic when they could take a twirl around the town! Here's to creating community shared models that work in the age of abundance!
I suspect there's a little more to it than simply a music library. My parents could have put the BSO in my bedroom and I still wouldn't be able to distinguish one note from another.
It's an odd mélange of inspirations - two grandmothers with encyclopedic minds and a boyhood spend exploring woods full of old cellar holes were definite factors. The next one will be a Vermont piece.
PS – while writing your blog, try doing so on Microsoft Word, and make sure your settings are saving your work every couple of minutes automatically. Don’t ask me how to do it, because I have no idea, but somehow that’s what my PC does.
Sadly, I was the rock that at least four music teachers broke themselves against...but the first thing I do when I enter someone's home is look at their bookshelves. It's a pretty good measure of who and what they are.
I am trying to post my sister singing Rusalka at the gym -- demonstrating what happens when one grows-up with a music library! Music is definitely more powerful than words!
I find the whole bookless house design so out of touch with science -- study after study proves the number of books in a house has a direct correlation on the academic performance of kids. Sadly, I was not enough of a reader (hoping to make up for lost time now), but I know just having the books around helped a great deal.
Ha! You may have met your match in my mom! She can make anyone sing! Totally agree on the book front and I used to look at the CD collection too out of curiosity. Currently if you enter our home you will see that Louise Penny is making her presence felt and many of the old classics and even the phase of Patrick O’Brien is getting backlogged for mom’s latest obsession with the mysteries or as she says her “crimies” pronounced almost like “creamies”, a topic for another day!
Your mom's efforts should be focused on people who can still be saved...but the bookshelves in the bedroom still hold four of Patrick O'Brien's books along with Kenneth Roberts and a set of Saki's works. My literary tastes are somewhat out-of-period.
The roots of the Curious Yankee are becoming clear! I just checked to see if our copy of Northwest Passage and Arundel and Rabble in Arms are still in tact. Can't find the Saki section, but know some of his works are in the house! Would love to hear more about your inspirations for the Curious Yankee. Looking forward to the next installment!
Oh, we’ve never had enough bookshelf space for all of our books, and, of course, the more we read, the more quickly we would run out of space. Cartons of books would end up going to the local ladies village improvement society to be resold and re-purposed.
One of the great joys of hardcover books was being able to pass them along to friends. Many of them would never return, but no matter.
MS robbed me of the ability to read hardcover books, almost 2 decades ago, but a Dartmouth classmate surprised me with a first generation, Amazon kindle. Suddenly, I was off and running again. The only drawback to reading electronically is that you can no longer “loan“ a really good book to a friend when you’re done reading it. Of course, the flipside to that problem is that my Kindle never runs out of bookshelf, space.
The whole subject of books and musical scores/sheet music saddens me. They seem to have gone the way of antique furniture. What we considered to be beautiful and treasured is, in today’s world, simply wood .
Everything moves too quickly. Everything is time leg zero. Nobody wants to slow down and savor the precious moment which is the “present.”
Yes we have been so programmed for speed and taught this scarcity mindset that we must hold on instead of share books with each other! I love sharing books and find it fun to see notes and highlights in the corner -- swapping books can be quite intimate and can help heal the oceans between us. I hear you about sharing a good book and not finding its way back home. Nowadays where people do not seem to care about books, I find it fun to seek out additional copies. Humor Ms. Soapbox for a moment: my fantasy is building a really good community library with a music library! And to hint at another installment coming soon -- a barn for all the ball gowns! It seems silly to keep them in the attic when they could take a twirl around the town! Here's to creating community shared models that work in the age of abundance!
Ball gowns??? That must’ve happened during my Rip van Winkle phase.
I suspect there's a little more to it than simply a music library. My parents could have put the BSO in my bedroom and I still wouldn't be able to distinguish one note from another.
Just you wait Henry Higgins
Eliza - where the devil are my slippers?
It's an odd mélange of inspirations - two grandmothers with encyclopedic minds and a boyhood spend exploring woods full of old cellar holes were definite factors. The next one will be a Vermont piece.
Here’s to the grandmothers! The “storehouses of wisdom” and the old cellar holes to remind us where we’ve come from before we lost our way🧭
Here's to new friends and unpaved roads!
PS – while writing your blog, try doing so on Microsoft Word, and make sure your settings are saving your work every couple of minutes automatically. Don’t ask me how to do it, because I have no idea, but somehow that’s what my PC does.
What do we do when the electricity fails!
That’s why computers have batteries. And houses have generators.
Sadly, I was the rock that at least four music teachers broke themselves against...but the first thing I do when I enter someone's home is look at their bookshelves. It's a pretty good measure of who and what they are.
I am trying to post my sister singing Rusalka at the gym -- demonstrating what happens when one grows-up with a music library! Music is definitely more powerful than words!
I find the whole bookless house design so out of touch with science -- study after study proves the number of books in a house has a direct correlation on the academic performance of kids. Sadly, I was not enough of a reader (hoping to make up for lost time now), but I know just having the books around helped a great deal.
Ha! You may have met your match in my mom! She can make anyone sing! Totally agree on the book front and I used to look at the CD collection too out of curiosity. Currently if you enter our home you will see that Louise Penny is making her presence felt and many of the old classics and even the phase of Patrick O’Brien is getting backlogged for mom’s latest obsession with the mysteries or as she says her “crimies” pronounced almost like “creamies”, a topic for another day!
Your mom's efforts should be focused on people who can still be saved...but the bookshelves in the bedroom still hold four of Patrick O'Brien's books along with Kenneth Roberts and a set of Saki's works. My literary tastes are somewhat out-of-period.
The roots of the Curious Yankee are becoming clear! I just checked to see if our copy of Northwest Passage and Arundel and Rabble in Arms are still in tact. Can't find the Saki section, but know some of his works are in the house! Would love to hear more about your inspirations for the Curious Yankee. Looking forward to the next installment!