Book Fair

Saturday J and I stopped in briefly at the Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair. I was slightly nervous to look at the books; I didn’t intend to buy anything. Miraculously, I made it out without a single book. I even managed to resist a pair of Abraham Lincoln bookends. Most of the books were not quite as “Antiquarian” as I expected. Though I did spot several pre-1800 texts, most of the books were more recent publications. Because we stopped in just before the close of the day, no entrance fee and we got free passes to the next book fair in September. 

I did have an enlightening chat with a bookseller who specializes in Dickens and picked his brain regarding resources for my thesis. Vastly helpful, but slightly discouraging, he gave me a topic no one has studied related Dickens. Sadly (or thankfully), I have already submitted work and cannot change my topic, but if I ever decide to do some original research I have a topic. 

For $125 you can buy this amazing Disney Silly Songs pop-up book.

Those first edition Baum books - over $600. Sadly the volumes I have are not first editions or in that good of shape.

If you can spot it "Mickey Mouse in the Foreign Legion" was calling my name.

 I don't know if they placed this book on the end of the shelf on purpose, I hope they did. It is quite the sight to greet when you turn the corner.

Illuminated

Every third Wednesday of the month Night at the California State Library occurs. A and I attended this month's presentation on Illuminated Manuscripts. From the press release, "Illuminated Manuscripts with internationally known antiquarian bookseller John Windle specializing in illuminated manuscripts, early and fine printings and illustrated books. John will be discussing the history and making of illuminated manuscripts". 

The evening always starts with refreshments. Sandwiches, several pasta salads, they had root beer floats this time, and a sheet cake that had a page from an illuminated manuscript printed on it. There is also wine, you know, if you go for that. It's pretty swanky. 

John Windle owns a bookshop in SF. Across the hall his wife has her bookshop - she specializes in children's books. Hear that, that is the sound of nothing, because my heart just stopped. Lucky kids. And they are completely adorable. He has a great british accent and wore a tie with images from an early book on it. In case you are interested in the purchase of a manuscript Mr. Windle brought along a CD catalogue of some of the items currently available...

The lecture was fantastic. He outlined the history of manuscripts and explained the process of illumination - the gold goes on first. Then he went through an example in detail - the Rosenwald Book of Hours from 1524. 

Impressive. 

Every Book of Hours began with a calendar of the months of the year - indicating the various saint's days. Days dedicated to local saints were written in gold. Holy days were indicated in red - which is where the saying "red letter day" comes from. Example from the manuscript we looked at.

The illustrations and text itself are exquisite.

This specific Book of Hours is interesting because it was actually completed after the invention of the printing press. Mr. Windle pointed out that the scribe seems to have attempted to imitate a printed book in the layout of his text. 

Because the Library of Congress is AMAZING you can actually view the entire scanned version of the book here. It was scanned by a company in Oakland, Octavo Digital Rare Books. Maybe you have $50,000-$3,000,000 sitting around that you would like to use to buy a rare manuscript - if not you can spend $19-$80 and get a PDF of the entire book. Most are under $50. That $80 - that would be for a PDF of an entire Gutenburg Bible. I do like their tagline "bringing rare books out of archival vaults and onto your desktop". Check out their website here. 

After the lecture we looked at some of the illuminated manuscripts the library has in its collection and I met the lovely gentleman who had been sitting next to me. He happened to be, in the the words of Mr. Windle, "the best bookseller in Sacramento" - thrilled to go and visit Richard's shop in the approaching future. One of my favorite moments was when A and I went to talk to Mr. Windle (on a hunch) about our book conservation classes. Remember that 1613 book M recently preserved that had cost 300K - sure enough Mr. Windle was the seller of said monograph and had requested M preform the work on behalf of the buyer. Small book world! We are going to give M Mr. Windle's greetings when we attend our next class. 

If you ever want to attend one of the Night at the State Library events - they are free. April's topic is Ansel Adams. 

Greedy

Sunday C and I were walking through the foyer at church. I decided to investigate several boxes of books placed on a table indicating they were free for the taking. I should have grabbed all the boxes and stashed them somewhere - ALL THE BOXES. But they were heavy and I was in heels.

I settled on three tomes. Shortly after stopping the hordes arrived. It was difficult to share, but I did it. Generous considering the books were not actually mine. Plus there were four or five bankers boxes filled with these books - where would I put them all? Granted if said boxes had contained the entire Journal of Discourses I might have pushed people over as I ran out the door balancing all five boxes (I've been wanting to get my hands on a complete set for YEARS). Luckily (for safety reasons) they were mostly bound compilations of old church publications. Having worked many hours indexing the Relief Society Magazine at BYU I knew what to expect. Fantastic-ness! I once found an advertisement in the RS Magazine for radioactive water, to drink for health benefits....

Now you will be subjected to one of the most photo overloaded posts on this blog.

How is that anticipation? For an idea about contents:

"Official Organ of the Priesthood Quorums, Mutual Improvement Associations, Department of Education, Music Committee, Ward Teachers, and Other Agencies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"

And now the good stuff - ads!

"The Magic Flame"

Iron age? Was the historical irony was lost on this clever company? I don't know that Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire really are the best models for how to make "your crops pay".

What makes a university great? According to this photo - it's library. Where obviously the books aren't that important as you can barely see the stacks in the far back.

Only in Utah!

Glad the girls in skirts days were over long before I got there.

More fun topics - Dating and Marriage! Apparently for many years Mary Bretnall had a monopoly on dating and marriage writing for the church. She has at least one in every single issue.

Hoping this is some girl in her prom dress standing outside the temple and not a slightly terrifying bridal shot (apologies if this is you, your mother, or your grandmother).

What is it? What is it?

"They had talked...about girl and boy friendships and marriage.... The talk had rambled and jumped about as conversation sometimes does. The thing that had worn on Jean was that none of the talk had been in any way constructive. Oh yes, it had been witty. Some of it had been hilariously funny if you felt that way about it, but it had been full of criticism, self-justification, of catty gossip, of a chip-on-the-shoulder attitude--of deep pessimism". Jean, my advice to you - don't come to 2012!

Creepy photo alert!

Other random goodness, 

More Mary.

"Physical Illness from Negative Attitudes" - starts off with a story about a lady who died in the dentist chair of fright...

Propaganda at its best, pretty sure that would be Moses and the Liberty Bell.

J - this one is for you!

"Britishers" - *snort*: (from the dictionary) n. not used by the British. I can't imagine why not.

Ahhhhh!!!! I can't get away from him. I promise to start working on my thesis...tomorrow.

Amen!

What is your family mood?

Stephen R. Covey...1967? He was 35 and had already been a mission president.

Cute little article on passover.

Explaining what brushes are for what, which hangers go with which and outlining hygiene practices you should observe.

Love the old stamps.

Full color photos on the polynesian cultural center.

Article introducing President Monson as the newest member of the Quorum of the Twelve.

Wishing I'd grabbed ALL those books. Who knows what I am missing?

Frantic

Much to do, little time to do it. I must say I achieved almost unheard of balance during my weekend. It was productive and filled with lovely things. Besides the fact I was limping horribly with every step by Sunday evening. 

Last week I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about time and priorities. It's basic argument was that we normally have more time than we think we have, and we need to be better about what we do with our time. Not rocket science by any means. However, it suggested an interesting perspective shift by focusing on priorities rather than focusing on time. 

For me the take-away was that now each time I think "I don't have time" I instead try to say "that's not a priority".

Example:

Over a week ago I received a replacement credit card and proceeded to lose it before I even left the house. I have NO idea what happened to it. Everyday I found myself thinking "I don't have time to call and cancel it" but when the thought shifted to "calling to cancel my lost credit card is not a priority" - when it's put like that, obviously it is a priority. I called and cancelled it.

Or

"I don't have time to do my homework, I'll clean the closet instead" turned to "doing my homework is not a priority, cleaning the closet is a priority" - both false statements. I settled for doing some homework and then rewarding myself with going through my coats (which took much less time than cleaning the entire closet). 

This approach has been fairly effective so far. Mostly because the tasks I regularly tell myself I don't have time for usually are priorities, while vacuuming again to procrastinate is not. It's has helped cut down on the frantic daily pace I set for myself. When I apply 'priority' to my list I realize there are quite a few tasks that are not priorities, which I should stop worrying about. It is lovely.