Bibliophile Guild

Mozart the Meerkitten said:
You should. They're good books. The first book is called "Dragonflight". And I (who always carries information from one book series to another) think that the books explain some things in other book serieses involving dragons (and movies too, in some cases....). If you've ever read Eragon they're rather similar to that.
And you can call me Mewsie.;)
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Okay, Mewsie. :D
My cousin has been getting on my for a couple of years to read Eragon...I am going to one day! I have sooo many books to read!
 
Soldier of Aslan said:
there is this christian celtic retelling of Robin Hood intitled 'Hood' I just picked up, perhaps that would interest you?
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Oh I remember that book... I read it once, its pretty interesting.


Today I got stuck in Barnes and Noble for about two hours. Having not been in there for many years I wandered around for about the first half hour then found a book and read for the rest of the time. When my dad had asked earlier if I'd be OK in Barnes and Noble for several hours I replied, "Dad, its a BOOKSTORE."
And that settled it.:p:D I didn't end up buying anything but I did read most of a book that I found there.:D

AND IT HAS AN ESCOLATOR!:eek:
 
I was in Barnes & Noble today, I collected several volumes on the Templars and began to read and compare them. I intend to purchase them next visit. :)
 
The Barnes and Noble on the campus of Mississippi State is the only place in the county with an escalator. I've only been in it once though....most of what they sell is textbook/academic related. Although I think I will venture in there to browse the book selection eventually; I haven't gotten around to it.

And the last book I bought was the 2nd book in The Rose Trilogy by Beverly Lewis. Was soo good, and I can't wait until the 3rd one releases in September!
 
The End of Bookstores is Neigh

Borders closed most of Its stores in US last year. Now Barnes & Noble is preparing to close 300 stores! A new age is dawning and it dismays me greatly. While I am in favor of the advent of the eReaders, I feared that these new efficent reading devices could oneday put bookstores out of business. Change is invitable, but I argue that the loss of literary vendors is going to be a determent for future generations. Digitalizing everything is going to come at a cost and I believe that will be human interaction and tactile experiance. The feeling of finding a gem (book) in a bookstore will be lost if the sanctums of the written word fall.

-A Concerned Bibliophile
 
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Oh, that's so sad that Barnes and Noble stores are also closing! :(

Honestly, I don't think it's entirely because of ereaders. A great majority of people still prefer to get hard copy books, but can purchase them much more cheaply on the internet. I like to get most of my books that way. I can buy books and have them come straight to my house instead of driving thirty minutes away to go to the closest Barnes and Noble, when they might not even have in stock the book I want. I think that bookstores are wonderful, and would be distraught to lose them all together, but I would not attribute closing stores entirely to digital books, since so many people buy hard copy books from Amazon.
 
MissReepicheep said:
Oh, that's so sad that Barnes and Noble stores are also closing! :(

Honestly, I don't think it's entirely because of ereaders. A great majority of people still prefer to get hard copy books, but can purchase them much more cheaply on the internet. I like to get most of my books that way. I can buy books and have them come straight to my house instead of driving thirty minutes away to go to the closest Barnes and Noble, when they might not even have in stock the book I want. I think that bookstores are wonderful, and would be distraught to lose them all together, but I would not attribute closing stores entirely to digital books, since so many people buy hard copy books from Amazon.
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You bring up the other piece of the pie. Amazon is the place to order books. I find many obsure volumes there and order them prompty and usually for 5% less than if I were to purchase them in the bookstore. So it is combination of eReaders, Amazon, and perhaps a lack of interest in reading that has tipped the scales for companies like Borders and Barnies & Noble. If you can think of another piece of pie, please divulge.
 
I am a bibliophile of the first magnitude. But rather than just reading novels and retrospective history, I love to read ephemera...materials that were of their time.

Anyone with an eye for history these days has an opinion on World War II. But books written DURING World War II to help people do their jobs, know their options and stay safe were amazing. So some of my favourite books from that era were:

Victory Through Air Power - Alexander deSeversky
The Bluejacket's Manual - US Navy
The Punch Below the Belt: Avoid Enemy Suberfuge! - US Army
Education for Death: The Making of a Nazi - Gregor Ziemer
The Boy Scout Handbook - BSA Editorial Staff

You'll notice I did not say "Mein Kampf" by Adolf Hitler. It was maddeningly dense, full of misinformation, and his prose rivaled "It was a dark and stormy night". Same is true about another famous book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

I also read the Japanese and German surrenders (in full) and various handbooks and instructional films regarding the anti-tank gun, the A-1 Firing Computer and how to operate the flight controls of the B-17 Bomber.

You see, I get a similar feeling inside from reading the exact words and seeing the exact photos and footage that people who fought the war experienced that some pilgrims get when they think they might be standing on the exact spot where Jesus walked on his way to the cross. Nothing that anyone has to say about such things today has the same fresh immediacy of BEING THERE and unlike modern books, ephemera WAS THERE.

One of the most touching moments happened to me when I read in Scientific American about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. "To people a hundred years from now who read this, our grand technologies will sound quaint and perhaps even humorous." I realized that he was writing TO ME. I was that fellow 100 years from then who read that! Well sir, your grand technologies WERE quaint but I also reached across the centuries as you thought about me and I thought about you, our spirits shook hands and nothing about that was the least bit humorous.
 
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EveningStar said:
I am a bibliophile of the first magnitude. But rather than just reading novels and retrospective history, I love to read ephemera...materials that were of their time.

Anyone with an eye for history these days has an opinion on World War II. But books written DURING World War II to help people do their jobs, know their options and stay safe were amazing. So some of my favourite books from that era were:

Victory Through Air Power - Alexander deSeversky
The Bluejacket's Manual - US Navy
The Punch Below the Belt: Avoid Enemy Suberfuge! - US Army
Education for Death: The Making of a Nazi - Gregor Ziemer
The Boy Scout Handbook - BSA Editorial Staff

You'll notice I did not say "Mein Kampf" by Adolf Hitler. It was maddeningly dense, full of misinformation, and his prose rivaled "It was a dark and stormy night". Same is true about another famous book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

I also read the Japanese and German surrenders (in full) and various handbooks and instructional films regarding the anti-tank gun, the A-1 Firing Computer and how to operate the flight controls of the B-17 Bomber.

You see, I get a similar feeling inside from reading the exact words and seeing the exact photos and footage that people who fought the war experienced that some pilgrims get when they think they might be standing on the exact spot where Jesus walked on his way to the cross. Nothing that anyone has to say about such things today has the same fresh immediacy of BEING THERE and unlike modern books, ephemera WAS THERE.

One of the most touching moments happened to me when I read in Scientific American about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. "To people a hundred years from now who read this, our grand technologies will sound quaint and perhaps even humorous." I realized that he was writing TO ME. I was that fellow 100 years from then who read that! Well sir, your grand technologies WERE quaint but I also reached across the centuries as you thought about me and I thought about you, our spirits shook hands and nothing about that was the least bit humorous.
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I share your passion for having the exact documentation from the period in which the historical event happened. We are part of dieing breed of lay and professional historians. We want to the facts and accounts from the time period in which they happened. Today many historians prefer the latest research and analysis. These historians swiftly become pseudo-historians, because they care more about the latest scholarship and politics than telling the truth. Give me the words of the people who experianced history first hand or at least on the sidelines. I don't want to hear what some P.H.D from Berkley has to say about the Holy Wars or The Third Reich. I want data from when these events took place.
 
One of the most haunting images I ever saw from World War II was Hitler being driven around by his chauffeur in his Dusenberg, wearing a pullover cap with the chin strap unbuckled. He was laying his head over on his shoulder whilst being driven to some far-off venue. From the back seat Albert Speer raised his camera and captured that captive moment of a middle aged man nodding off on a road trip that could have been almost anybody. It was so incongruous with that firm-jawed crystal blue eyed man of destiny that appears in German posters and that yelling idiot of most Allied cartoons. It was the real Hitler that tacticians on both sides had to predict and deal with.

That's what makes ephermera so important...it's not revisionist, it's a coming to grips with what's going on and trying to make sense out of it.
 
Today I was ridiculed for my love of books.

I was sick yesterday and so I wasn't at school, so when I showed up today I was amazed to find that my English teacher had redone the bookshelves and put a bunch of new books on them. I kept getting up and staring at them at the beginning of class, much to the chagrin of my two friends who kept rolling their eyes and telling me to stop and come back.
They just don't understand.
 
Mozart the Meerkitten said:
Today I was ridiculed for my love of books.

I was sick yesterday and so I wasn't at school, so when I showed up today I was amazed to find that my English teacher had redone the bookshelves and put a bunch of new books on them. I kept getting up and staring at them at the beginning of class, much to the chagrin of my two friends who kept rolling their eyes and telling me to stop and come back.
They just don't understand.
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Don't be discouraged or dismayed Mozart. They just don't understand. Be bold and prusue your passion of books. Ignore their eyes and silence their voices as you embrace your bibliophilia.
 
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