I have always placed great importance to the substance of books...not just the contents, but their significance as actual objects.Books have places in our lives...they influence, inform, inspire,entertain...Some books have been instrumental in shaping the way I think or feel..they help mould my life...and as such,they take their place in my memory, my experience and on my bookshelf.To look at my bookshelf is to look at an overview of my life in many ways. In fact i would go so far as to say that seeing someones bookshelf is a good a way to see into someone in ways that mere conversation cannot.
I thought I'd post these photos of a book that has been with me for many years. The Cambridge University Press Edition of 'English Poetry Part One' Significant for the fact that it belonged to my Great Uncle John who was in France as part of the British expeditionary Force following WW1. The inscription inside the front cover reads: 'L/C J young 22679, 782 Artisan company, Labour Corps,B.E.F. Pinched from Union Jack club,Lille, France. March 1919.....do you think they'll be wanting it back?
John young left the BEF/Army and returned to work in Nottingham where he worked as a maker of cricket bats for the company of Gunn and Moore...one of the things he made was a wooden tea tray which I still use to this very day!
Added 9-6-08 Incidentally, for this reason I always write in every book I buy:..Name , date and anything significant at the time...
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2 comments:
Imagine what we don't know about the objects we inherit. This reminded me of that programme I watched called Who do you think you are?. About tracing back ancestors. Very interesting.
DM...i've seen a few episodes of that programme. Tracing one's past is very much 'The thing' these days...i've not got into it because it tends to take up so much time...but I do wonder like you what we don't know, and what is under our own noses.
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