I have a really old bible, so thick, with a really strong metal frame. The pictures in it are spectacular. It is just coming away a little bit at the frame and needs restoring but it is beautiful. It is probably over 150 years old, left to me by my family.
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As have I. It has family births and deaths written inside the cover as it is very big and has explanations of the text as one goes through it. Maybe for learning to be a priest?
Yes that would be lovely…it is so beautiful. I feel the need to have it restored at some time
Yes the old march uphill once you entered them! Although not referred to as a DC3 (or 4) Philippine Airways local flights used these for island hopping across their 300 islands, during the early 1980’s . At first they worried me, but they were far better at handling typhoon weather than the later jets. The seats did have a tendency to collapse under one though, which could be a bit disoncerting! Curiously though these really did cure me of my fear of flying! (or more accurately fear of crashng!)
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Looking at History by R J Unstead - I loved this as a child and it informed my passion for history.
Did you buy the book for yourself or was it in some way gifted to you?
I wonder sometimes which comes first - parental or other recognition of an undeveloped interest, or the creation of an interest?, or something in ourselves that draws us to a subject?
i have noted the parental offerings mentioned by several contributors, but mostly they seem to be books of the moment that wouldn’t lead on to much else - like a bar chocolate,n enjoyed but that is the extent of it.
I have thought of myself as eclectic in my reading, but when I look across the shelves I realise that, with the exception of the books related to my work, I am far from being widely read. Very few autobiographies, almost zero on philosophy or classics of ancient times, and probably no more than 3-4% are novels - and even these have an historical bias. In its wider context, the vast majority of my books are related to History of all kinds - political (inc War), Art, and a lot of product histories.
There is no link to anything presented at school as like others I left aged 15. No family interest to follow - in fact zilch influence that I could identify. I think it was a bit here, leading to a bit there, and then sideswipes ‘en route’. My butterfly mind remains the same or even worse with the onset of the WorldWide Web.
I can’t even claim to know what I DON’t know!
Doubt if it will change much now.
It was bought for me; I was reading at five. I wish I could focus on reading so much now at 69.
I still have the first book I ever read at age 4 - called ‘A day in the country’ I remember always getting frustrated with the word ‘drake’ as I kept forgetting it!
My most loved book is a lovely hardback copy of Little Women, I remember getting it in my stocking on Christmas morning when I was 9 or 10. I had to be dragged out of bed to open the rest of my presents (you know boring things like new waterskis 
)! That was a wonderful Christmas!
My husband has a set of Someone (Weatherspoons???) Workshop manuals from the 1880’s, they are wonderful, a treasure trove of information (and some things not to try - dodgy chemicals etc!). And leather bound as well - so nice!
Not a book, but a Bristol Brabazon memory.
During my first year in art school, my tutor told me that her (much older partner) prior to lecturing in Fine Art, had been one of the draughtsmen working on the Brabazon plans (obviously long before CAD, or indeed even Rotring pens). Apparently, their parallel action drawing boards were nine feet wide and the plans were drawn with super hard 9H pencils that had been sharpened into a chisel rather than a point, thus enabling them to draw a line of constant width that was several feet long.
I actually applied this information in a drawing and it may be that someone else out there might also appreciate this seemingly trivial minutiae.
Mark - another memory! In Melbourne and for about six months I got some space with a Civil Engineeer consultancy who also worked on huge ‘plan tables’ as they called them - logically as that what they worked on and with. It was an interesting adjacency as at that time I was doing a lot of packaging - as ‘reflective art’ and used A1 Drawing Boards, which seemed tiny compared to theirs. As you say not only before CAD but before Computers! Doesn’t seem possible does it? Over 40 years ago now. I still have my blue-lead reprographic pencils I used. Another odd term as they were produced NOT to be seen, when burning negs and plates.
Old Technology - but at least I understood how it all worked!
As a student I remember having a later and horribly expensive Letraset Pantone fine line marker (danger of further wandering off subject) that also didn’t reproduce on a copy camera. The colour was known as ‘drop-out blue’; I like to think - probably erroneously - this was because it resembled the colour of hippies’ faded jeans.
Trying to post a reply on the thread’s actual subject, but have too many digressive memories…
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Hi Mark - started this post so feel free to digress where you will! I will be with you all the way I think! Everyone else welcome with their digressive thoughts as well.
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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. When I was six we bought a puppy dalmation from a retired doctor in Kent. Bored with the adult conversation I picked out this book from the bookshelf and was totally absorbed. When it came time to leave the doctor said I could take it with me. I have it still, well thumbed and held together with sellotape.
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Thanks Norman - lovely idea for a thread! And not surprisingly, so many rich, evocative responses.
Sadly, this isn’t one of them - I lost my first book collection in 1980 (yes, the whole bloody lot - don’t ask how, but forty years later therein lies a tale that still irks).
Nevertheless, only three of the ‘much missed’ works were sufficiently missed to have been replaced: so the essential quality wasn’t ‘missed’, but ‘still needed’. Today, the most important of these are a battered two volume Shorter OED (replaced in 1984) and Roland Barthes’ Mythologies, first read fifty years ago when an undergrad (now have a French edition too - can’t be the sole person to find parallel texts another useful means of learning French). Mythologies was originally important as an early example of analysing the significance of popular cultural phenomena (semiotics) but today, it’s an interesting historical document that shows how French intellectuals (occasionally cringe-inducingly patronisingly) regarded the changing tastes of ordinary people during les Trentes Glorieuses .
The OED gives the origins of English words and studying French has made these more important to me; I enjoy separating those that originated in the old languages of northern Europe from those with Latin roots. This process can be insightful – for instance we tend to think of a forest as a large wood, but the two terms’ historical roots diverge –there were important differences between ‘wood’ ( wald - Old German) and forest ( foret – Norman). The wood, or greenwood was where Saxons could freely gather firewood, hunt or live and work , whereas the forest was a later Norman imposition whose harsh laws forbade informal hunting, firewood gathering or indeed any informal anything. Similarly a ‘chase’, was originally a Norman aristocrat’s walled hunting ground.
Perhaps Farage and co should focus on these ancient impositions (and how they’ve now become part of the English landscape). Bring back the greenwood! Where’s Robin Hood when you need him!
Simon Schama’s Landscape and Memory is a superb entry point into the unpicking of the sources of national landscapes, their associated myths and values.
Badly wanted to post on this thread, but have nevertheless slightly veered off subject – still, hope it might be of interest, or of use to someone out there….
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Isn’t that the Narnia collection?
Hi Mark, yes I have also lost books in my travels, and often wondered what happened to some of them. However I think I must hold some sort of record with my stolen art - having had demonstrably proven -even semi-legally when some dozen of my works were on show in a London Wine Bar (for sale) and I had opened a pro-forma invoice (under advice) to prove they were still my property. This still didn’t stop them being sequestered as ‘assets’ when the wine bar went broke! A seize of watercolours of London pubs - also disappeared when the owner a pub also vanished. Then a portfolio of some twenty assorted pieces (old transport) also got nicked in a similar fashion! Hint to other artists who think it might be a good idea to have some free restaurant wall space - for a bit of commission payable - forget it! Preferable to get ffee meal!
re origins of words, yes although not an obsession I too have books on the ‘origins of words’ even those we now regard as obscene. The cross-fertilisation with French in particular -and Indian) is enormous. I once started a tome entitled ‘You Already Know French’ with the same words (almost) in English and French, but got bored after about 3,000 entries, and dropped it. However nothing wasted as when lost for a French word I often try a Frenchified pronunciation of an English one, and it is amazing how often it works! Take words in either language beginning in ‘pre’ or ‘pro’ for example. Needless to say ‘pronunciation’ and ‘prononciation’ vary by just one vowel and very close proximity in sound.
Great fun?
One book from childhood, which I never forgot… was Hassoldt Davis’ “Nepal, land of mystery”
I can “date” happenings, due to the number of times we moved home… in my mind, I can visualize in which house/surroundings such-and-such happened… thus, I know I was under 11 when I read this book.
Firstly… the title intrigued me… and as I ploughed through the story, I was transported to another world… wonderful.
OH has heard me talk of this book and he found me a copy, as a surprise, a couple of years ago… great stuff… .
(it is the 1943 edition… and when I read it, when I hold it, I am that child again… 
)
so, I’ve not owned this book for long… but it’s been in my head for a very long time… 
That is a lovely story! What a thoughtful fella you have! 
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