That's spelt wrong!

[BeeMused]

This is a story from more than 20 years ago.

I was working in a small antique book store and we had aquirred a lot of dictionaries, the famous German Duden. To sell them quickly we made posters to hang in the windows. For those of you who speak German: "Jeda Duhden nuuer 5 Maaak!" The english equivalent would be something like "Aech Wepstah jus' 5 Dollahs!"
We had fun making those posters. Most customers got the joke and thought it funny too.

But then in stormed one woman: "Don't you know that Duhden (Wepstah) is spelt wrong?" And she stormed out again.

My CW and I had a good laugh, and nope, we didn't correct the spelling.

[BeeMused]

Hehehehe! Of course! On the other hand... we could have sold her a Duden, too!!!

We had weird things happen in that bookstore. Once an interior designer came in and wanted stacks of books, authors didn't matter, but colours and sizes did! So we spent an afternoon to put together a used looking library. We mostly choose "good" authors, but some sleaze as well.

[Shalom]

We had weird things happen in that bookstore. Once an interior designer came in and wanted stacks of books, authors didn't matter, but colours and sizes did! So we spent an afternoon to put together a used looking library. We mostly choose "good" authors, but some sleaze as well.

I hope the decorator didn't nail the books together so his harmonious arrangement wouldn't be disturbed, but I suspect he did.

My grandfather used to collect antique Hebrew books. He once outbid someone else for a leather-bound set of Talmud that he didn't even need, because the other guy wanted to put the bindings on display on a shelf and throw out the contents.

[Green_Fairy]

My grandfather used to collect antique Hebrew books. He once outbid someone else for a leather-bound set of Talmud that he didn't even need, because the other guy wanted to put the bindings on display on a shelf and throw out the contents.

when i was little, still in elementary school, my mom did something similar to that. she took the jackets off of old cook books, cut them down to size, and wrapped them around blocks to cover a stove vent. i actually cried and was sooo mad at her.

[Dreamstalker]

Once an interior designer came in and wanted stacks of books, authors didn't matter, but colours and sizes did!

Symmetrical book-stacking?

[BeeMused]

Symmetrical book-stacking?

LOL, no! Apparently someone needed the appearance of literacy without effort.

<ponder> This might be a new business idea...

[BeeMused]

I hope the decorator didn't nail the books together so his harmonious arrangement wouldn't be disturbed, but I suspect he did.

Dunno, but yep, that guy might have just done that. <shudder>

My grandfather used to collect antique Hebrew books. He once outbid someone else for a leather-bound set of Talmud that he didn't even need, because the other guy wanted to put the bindings on display on a shelf and throw out the contents.

Good for your grandfather! I hate it when people do that to books and abuse them like that! During that job I learned a lot about bookbinding, since we repaired books too. They let me do the simpler things like reglueing the end papers. It's absolutely amazing to watch a book being disassembled and then put back together, still looking old, but usable again!

[Soulstealer]

I hope the decorator didn't nail the books together so his harmonious arrangement wouldn't be disturbed, but I suspect he did.

My grandfather used to collect antique Hebrew books. He once outbid someone else for a leather-bound set of Talmud that he didn't even need, because the other guy wanted to put the bindings on display on a shelf and throw out the contents.

You should thank your grandfather even if it takes a ouija board. I can't stand people who would harm books.

[EricKei]

Symmetrical book-stacking?

You're right. No human would stack books like this.

[K'Z'K]

LOL, no! Apparently someone needed the appearance of literacy without effort.

<ponder> This might be a new business idea...

This business exists. http://www.booksbythefoot.com/ is one of many.


-K'Z'K

[Shalom]

You should thank your grandfather even if it takes a ouija board.

Believe me, I already have. He only passed on a few years ago, aged around 88 or so. I was fortunate to have had him around to learn from for so long.

Respect for books runs in this family. My father used to work in a library before he was married, and had the knack (probably inherited from his father) to just reach out as he walked the stacks and grab a book that had been mis-shelved; he somehow just could feel that it wasn't in the right place. They called him "The Finder"; he still has that talent to this day. The head librarian once asked him how he did that, and he shrugged and said "I don't know, I just walk along and reach out like this..." and he grabbed a book at random off the shelf next to him and handed it to his boss. Turned out to be an early (c. 1600) and very valuable Maimonides which ought to have been under lock and key in the rare book room. Didn't even have an accession stamp in it; anyone could have just walked off with it. Librarian took one look at it and turned white...

I can't stand people who would harm books.

Yeah, me neither. I won't even bend down corners of pages, and I'm always careful not to open a book too wide and crack the spine. (Of course some paperbacks are just glued together, there isn't a helluva lot you can do to prevent that short of sewing it.)

I remember the one time I ever found a book in my possession that really needed to be destroyed, and it took a positive act of will to throw it out, despite my sincere conviction that it had the potential to cause physical harm to anyone who read it and followed its dicta. Even then I was gentle as I put it in the trash.

(Because it claimed to be a medical book, but was self-published back in the '50s by some quack patent-medicine salesman, and was full of erroneous and possibly dangerous disinformation, e.g. viruses don't really exist, all diseases are caused by constipation and can be cured by giving enemas, anyone who was circumcised needs to bring his schwanz to a plastic surgeon and have his foreskin surgically reconstructed immediately, etc. I even noticed an entry in the index saying "Rabies, a Myth: Page xx". Tell that to Doctor Pasteur's patients, you moron. I don't recall the title, except that it had the word "Hygienic" in it.)

(Oh, and he spent several chapters ranting and raving against vaccination. Funny thing is, some of today's anti-vaccination looneys seem to have memorized large chunks of his drivel and will spout it at the least provocation.)

[Ironclad Alibi]

This business exists. http://www.booksbythefoot.com/ is one of many.

They sell books by color! This would be wonderful for those SCs that want the book with a blue cover. Can you imagine their reaction when confronted with a bookcase full of books with blue covers?

[BeeMused]

This business exists. http://www.booksbythefoot.com/ is one of many.


-K'Z'K

This is wrong on so many levels! I see that happening for film sets, but for real homes?

[BeeMused]

I remember the one time I ever found a book in my possession that really needed to be destroyed, and it took a positive act of will to throw it out, despite my sincere conviction that it had the potential to cause physical harm to anyone who read it and followed its dicta. Even then I was gentle as I put it in the trash.

I was tempted to do that with some books, Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and some biology textbooks from the Third Reich. Reading them makes me physically ill. <full body shudder> I inherited them from an old couple, and decided to keep them as historical documents.

[Dreamstalker]

We found an early 1910's eugenics book in the attic of my grandparents' house. Nothing to do with Nazis; it seems to be a general treatise printed before that period of history. Interesting but not worth a hell of a lot.

We still have it, more as a curiosity than anything else (I've been trying to ferret out if it had belonged to anyone in Grandma's family; had to, as the house was purchased new).

This business exists. http://www.booksbythefoot.com/ is one of many.

Wow. Had this existed when I was a pup, we could have sold the ten boxes of Readers Digest Condensed volumes that showed up in the main building hallway one day.