Richard McGowan's Blog: Smashed-Rat-On-Press - Posts Tagged "punctual"
Humphreys on "The Private Library"
(Apology: I was doing to write this blather in a review, but as I haven't finished the book by a long-shot, I thought it best to merely toss in some discussion from the sidelines and leave a formal review until some other time.)
The Private Library by Arthur L. Humphreys
This thin book of a bygone era smiled prettily at me from the shelf of a used bookstore in Santa Cruz today, and I opened it up to a random page which happened to be headed (and I shall not blush to write this) Boudoir Libraries... Now that is precisely up my alley isn't it? I'll admit that much; and in the course of this brief chapter the author reminds us that:
Reference books such as verbal dictionaries, dictionaries of quotations, a classical dictionary, an atlas, or a biographical dictionary, should always be to hand; and even when these are in the large library, duplicates should be kept in the boudoir.
Absolutely sound advice, which I shall take immediately upon my first opportunity to furnish the multiple libraries of a grand English estate.
I also liked the sturdy advice in a later chapter on Weeding Out, in which the author reminds us:
The libraries which were formed in past generations cannot be expected to suit present-day requirements. In a great many country-house libraries there is little else than a great mass of turgid theology, but very often buried among these are really valuable books.
Mr Humphreys uses that as a preamble to a goodly chapter on The Catalogue in which he assures us:
The old catalogues were mostly very bad.
If you'll just hang on a few moments, Mr Humphreys, I shall send someone to fetch you two-hundred-some years into the future when we have a bit of technology that might profitably assist you in your cataloging efforts. (Apparently this was originally published in 1800 by Strangeways & Sons, London.)
Oh, and by the way, dear Reader, you can get a slick modern copy of this lovely book HERE in snazzy electronic form from Project Gutenberg.
The Private Library by Arthur L. Humphreys
This thin book of a bygone era smiled prettily at me from the shelf of a used bookstore in Santa Cruz today, and I opened it up to a random page which happened to be headed (and I shall not blush to write this) Boudoir Libraries... Now that is precisely up my alley isn't it? I'll admit that much; and in the course of this brief chapter the author reminds us that:
Reference books such as verbal dictionaries, dictionaries of quotations, a classical dictionary, an atlas, or a biographical dictionary, should always be to hand; and even when these are in the large library, duplicates should be kept in the boudoir.
Absolutely sound advice, which I shall take immediately upon my first opportunity to furnish the multiple libraries of a grand English estate.
I also liked the sturdy advice in a later chapter on Weeding Out, in which the author reminds us:
The libraries which were formed in past generations cannot be expected to suit present-day requirements. In a great many country-house libraries there is little else than a great mass of turgid theology, but very often buried among these are really valuable books.
Mr Humphreys uses that as a preamble to a goodly chapter on The Catalogue in which he assures us:
The old catalogues were mostly very bad.
If you'll just hang on a few moments, Mr Humphreys, I shall send someone to fetch you two-hundred-some years into the future when we have a bit of technology that might profitably assist you in your cataloging efforts. (Apparently this was originally published in 1800 by Strangeways & Sons, London.)
Oh, and by the way, dear Reader, you can get a slick modern copy of this lovely book HERE in snazzy electronic form from Project Gutenberg.
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