Beinecke
So my school has a library here called the Beinecke (pronounced Bi-nick-e) Rare Books and Manuscripts collection. The library has a lot of great original works; for instance, a guttenberg Bible. Anywho, I heard a rumor that students with supervision in a closed room could look within like a few feet of an actual old book. So I found I that was not the case; however, it is the case that with a particular reason for research you can actually read an old copy. I thought, then of the best excuse I could to see the oldest author in English I could think of. I said I was dioing a paper on Chaucer and how the modern editions have changed spelling and punctuation (even the Middle English editions) from the original. So the lady got me the oldest edition of Chaucer they had. It turned out to be a first edition Chaucer made by the first printer in England. The equivilant of the Guttenberg Bible for England. I got to actually physically read and turn pages (I saw it, smelled it, and touched it) of a book dated 1400. I read a book, and understood it in the Middle English, from 605 years ago! Does anyone else find this amazing. God I'm glad I'm at Yale.