this story is pointless but i wanted to share it anyway
One of my favourite local events is the Children's Hospital Book Market, which happens several times a year. It was held just a few weekends ago, and I enlisted my brother to help me find a copy of The Hobbit because I wanted to (try to) re-read it before the movie comes out.
Unfortunately, we couldn't find one. (We did however find two copies of The Two Towers, which we laughed about because one year we found dozens of copies of Fellowship and RotK and absolutely zero Two Towers, it was bizarre and sad and hilarious.) So I was a little bummed about not finding the book but whatever, there's lots of used book stores, I figured I can easily find it somewhere else.
But the other day my brother called me all pleased because he came across a book sale at his university, and he found The Hobbit in paperback and he bought it for me! And of course I was happy and touched, but still immediately asked what the cover looked like because I'm a book snob and if it isn't the one with Smaug and his giant pile of gold I was going to be sad. But it was totally the cover I wanted, so I was pretty stoked to get it from him.
I finally went over to Dad's house this past weekend and my brother hands me a stack of books of mine that he's finished with, and The Hobbit is sitting on top. I immediately pick it up, fan the pages, and smell them. Dad laughs and comments that my brother and I both do the same thing when we get a new book -- we fan the pages and smell.
But that's how you assess the goodness of a book, right? First you look at the outside to judge its damage versus use and see if it looks a little aged, a little worn; if it has a scuffed but undamaged cover, rounded points and a spine broken in a place or two in a way that shows it's been read a few times but not by many hands. Then you check the pages for dog ears and writing and yellowing, to make sure the inside has been treated as well as the outside. And when it passes that test, you have to check for the invisible damage and make sure it smells like clean paper and bookshelves, and not mould or smoke or some stranger's spilled coffee.
So this book passed all my tests, and it's going on my (seriously overflowing dear lord) to-read bookshelf. Hopefully I'll get to it soon! December is coming quickly. /o\
cross-posted from dreamwidth, please comment over there. existing comments:
Unfortunately, we couldn't find one. (We did however find two copies of The Two Towers, which we laughed about because one year we found dozens of copies of Fellowship and RotK and absolutely zero Two Towers, it was bizarre and sad and hilarious.) So I was a little bummed about not finding the book but whatever, there's lots of used book stores, I figured I can easily find it somewhere else.
But the other day my brother called me all pleased because he came across a book sale at his university, and he found The Hobbit in paperback and he bought it for me! And of course I was happy and touched, but still immediately asked what the cover looked like because I'm a book snob and if it isn't the one with Smaug and his giant pile of gold I was going to be sad. But it was totally the cover I wanted, so I was pretty stoked to get it from him.
I finally went over to Dad's house this past weekend and my brother hands me a stack of books of mine that he's finished with, and The Hobbit is sitting on top. I immediately pick it up, fan the pages, and smell them. Dad laughs and comments that my brother and I both do the same thing when we get a new book -- we fan the pages and smell.
But that's how you assess the goodness of a book, right? First you look at the outside to judge its damage versus use and see if it looks a little aged, a little worn; if it has a scuffed but undamaged cover, rounded points and a spine broken in a place or two in a way that shows it's been read a few times but not by many hands. Then you check the pages for dog ears and writing and yellowing, to make sure the inside has been treated as well as the outside. And when it passes that test, you have to check for the invisible damage and make sure it smells like clean paper and bookshelves, and not mould or smoke or some stranger's spilled coffee.
So this book passed all my tests, and it's going on my (seriously overflowing dear lord) to-read bookshelf. Hopefully I'll get to it soon! December is coming quickly. /o\
cross-posted from dreamwidth, please comment over there. existing comments: