Life update: new job!

I haven't posted anything in a while, but this time it's for a good reason: I got a new job! I'm now the librarian of a health sciences university. I've been working here since May and I really like it. Here are a couple random things I like about my new job:

TIFITLWIW: Things found in books, castle edition

An admission ticket to see Sissinghurst Castle, inside a souvenir booklet for said castle. Easy to see how this one came about.

It's been a while since I took these but I think they're the same thing and were found in the same book? I found this Shakespeare Memorial Window fascinating. The other one is of the Shakespeare monument, which shows the Bard in sassy repose.

TIFITLWIW: The Golden Treasury

This is one of the biggest, loveliest old books I've ever seen and held. It's The Golden Treasury of Poetry and Prose, edited by Francis F. Browne and with an introduction by Richard Henry Stoddard (1883). It's probably a foot wide, a bit longer than that long and about 3-4 inches thick. And it has wonderful illustrations/engravings. Here are the pictures I took of it:

 

The gold parts are metallic and shiny. 

 

These are the authors. I think the signatures are pictures of their handwriting rather than actual physical autographs. Also, Francis F. Browne can get it. I'm totally submitting him to My Daguerreotype Boyfriend.

                           BOOKS.
I cannot think the glorious world of mind,
Embalmed in books, which I can only see
In patches, though I read my moments blind
        Is to be lost to me.

I have a thought that, as we live elsewhere,
So will those dear creations of the brain;
That what I lose unread, I'll find, and there
        Take up my joy again.

O then the bliss of blisses, to be freed
From all the wants by which the world is driven,
With liberty, and endless time to read
        The libraries of Heaven!
~Robert Leighton

TIFITLWIW: Horses roundup (heh)

I was going through the pictures on my phone and realized a good amount of them involved horses. So I thought I'd put them together in a post.

This is by Carol Cable, from a funny book of her cartoons about academe. I saw this and immediately thought of Tumblr.

I saw this and immediately thought of one of my favorite shows. Parks & Recreation takes place in Pawnee, Indiana. There is a Native American tribe on that show, but they are the Wamapoke (sp?) rather than the Pawnee tribe.

This is a funny little horse doodle I found on the back of a book jacket.

Often hardcover books that come with dust jackets will have a publisher's logo or something indented into the book cover (there's a specific term for this I think, like 'stamped' or something, but I don't know what it is). This one's a horse and the initials of the author, who I think is known for writing books about horses. The book (which I just spent like 15 minutes looking for) is The Man Who Listens to Horses by Monty Roberts. I took a pic of this because my initials are MR as well.

TIFITLWIW: Cutest found bookmark

Found this inside the book pictured underneath. Isn't it adorable? It's a cross-stitch embroidered bookmark that reads, "this is where I fell asleep" and has a teddy bear wearing a nightcap. Perfect for people like my dad who fall asleep in the middle of reading.

TIFITLWIW: Don't judge a book by its cover

Book covers are very important to me. When I'm buying series, they all must have the same cover. I have the three Howl's Moving Castle books, but two have these  covers and one (the middle one, which makes it worse) has this one. It drives me nuts (I think at least one was a gift, and/or I couldn't find the last one with the proper cover and I didn't want to wait to read it). But I don't want to spend extra money to replace it. #firstworldproblems

Anyway, I came across some books with, shall we say, interesting covers.

Quick, guess what this book is about! Well, there's a sword and a flower, plus that font and color choices... Maybe it's a historical bodice-ripper romance novel? Well, I don't know about the romance, but judging by the book's Wikipedia entry, it's a historical novel about ancient Rome. It does not sound like it matches the cover at all.

Check this guy out too:

I know Chaim Potok as the author of The Chosen (I saw the movie but haven't read anything by him), so I know it's probably a great work of fiction. This cover kinda sucks though. It's just so painfully Eighties. Like, if this cover had a lady on it in addition to the pensive main guy, I'd assume it was another one of those White Couple With Tragic Love and Angst books. However, I opened it to find...

It was signed by the author. Cute this face again.

TIFITLWIW: Surprise stamp

So I was going though my iPad pictures when I found this one that I had totally forgotten about:

 It's a wee little striding man in a hat, stamped on the bottom of a book. I just found it by accident. It's probably about an inch high. I think it may be a printer's mark? I don't even remember what book this was. Anyway, I thought it was cute.

UPDATE: I found another one, and it's the logo for Simon & Schuster. I'm guessing they stamp the bottom of all their hardcover books. Neat. 

FURTHER UPDATE: Apparently it's also the logo for Prentice Hall??? Are both owned by the same publishing house? I'm so confused. Anyway, PH's logo shows the striding man in greater detail. He's actually a farmer sowing seed, like in a field or something. The hand behind him is flinging the seed behind him, while his other hand reaches into a pouch slung in front of his body. I guess it's a metaphor for spreading knowledge which sprouts in readers' mind or something. idk. I'm only 99% sure it's the same logo.

TIFITLWIW: Things found in books 3

Mini Disneyland playing card. It's probably like 2 inches long. Pen included for scale. I don't remember what book I found this in.

Bulletins for the Campus Hill Church. Interesting to see how the logos and fonts changed (probably because of the change in pastors). I like the old rainbow church logo but can see why they changed it. These were found inside religious books, naturally.

Despite how book-oriented I am, I strangely was never into bookplates and marking "my" books. I can understand the appeal and the usefulness, especially if you lend your books out to friends a lot. I do find most bookplates cute, but it just comes off as super possessive to me. Why be so desperate to mark your books as yours? It comes off as very "it's MINE!!!!" to me. Plus if you want to give them away or sell them later you have to take them out or force the buyer to have a book with your name in it (this weirds me out since I'm kind of a private person). So while a lot of the bookplates found in the donated books are cute, they are a huge pain in the nether regions to remove. A lot of them won't come off, so I have to leave them in the books. I'll probably cover them with a blank sticker label or something. Anyway this one has a squirrel on it.

TIFITLWIW: Title pages

A Book of Golden Deeds of All Times and All Lands, Gathered & Narrated by Charlotte M. Yonge (Dutton & Co., ~1908).
This book, which I think is about good deeds done by good people, sounds kinda didactic and boring. Aren't the title pages gorgeous though? I love the quote by Shakespeare. This is actually my current cellphone wallpaper.

Modern Essays Selected by Norman E. Brett-James (Dutton & Co., ~1924)
By the same publishing house. I didn't notice that until now. Gorgeous early twentieth-century books.

 Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, translated by Lawrence Grant White with illustrations by Gustave Doré (Pantheon Books, 1948)
Totally nerded out when I found this. This gif is what my face was doing as I flipped through the book. Also, note Dante's uncanny resemblance to Grumpy Cat.

Paganism, Popery, & Christianity... by Vincent W. Milner (Bradley, 1860)
This one's not as pretty but I'm showing it as an example of the crazy-long titles books used to be given. They didn't mess around in those days; they wanted you to know exactly what was going to be in their book. Click and read this one; it's great. I am also amused by how RAGE OF THE PROTESTANT VARIETY the author is about Catholicism. It's easy to forget about that being A Thing in the 1800s. Let There Be Light is also the motto of UCLA; not sure why the circle/seal thing is a belt. Also, this book is older than the American Civil War.

Things I've found in the library where I work: Things found in books 2

Sometimes you find neat things left inside books. A bound play in book form had several ads and clippings inside. The back side of one had a pin-up ad from the forties.

"I like 'Smooth' Men!" Sorry, Whisker Club.

This pamphlet was found in a different book and is about the "backstage" supporters in hospitals, such as nurses and janitors. I thought it was kinda cute.

Things I've found in the library where I work: Things found in books

There's a great blog called Forgotten Bookmarks, where people submit things they've found in books, either library or used books. This is mainly along those lines.

This made me laugh. So great. The paper's yellowing, as well as the font, indicates that this card is from several decades ago. I'm thinking mid-century, sometime before 1980 but probably after 1930.

This one was found in a religious book, I'm pretty sure, as it is a quote from SDA periodical Amazing Facts:

"God has preserved His word in miraculous ways throughout the centuries, using His faithful workers to spread the gospel even in the most dangerous times. An amazing narrative that will increase your faith for [the?] coming time of trouble." Amazing Facts Jan-Feb 2004

I'm not sure what the other text is for. "Great Deals"?

Love this. "I choose to love myself in spite of myself!"

Things I've found in the library where I work: Random book covers

#swag #plaid #palebluegrandpajeans

 

This cover delights me. Not sure why I like Don Knotts since I don't think I've seen anything he's in (I had to Wikipedia him), but how can you look at that face and not (like him, that is). What a swell human.

Henry James on Italy, with the most beautiful paintings of Venice and Rome and such. Haven't tried reading this one because I might burst into tears from missing Italy so much. Also pictured: my Macbook with its purple keyboard cover, some boxes.

Isn't this a lovely cover? There's awesome little medieval-type people representing the different disciplines in each round curlicue thing. I love old books.

Things I've found in the library where I work: National Geographic magazines

So I've started working as a librarian in a junior college library. I'm building their library from the ground up, basically, and this involves going through all their donated books and materials. I've found some pretty neat things, which I'll highlight in this blog as a series.

Somebody donated a bunch (a couple boxes worth) of National Geographic magazines. I haven't really gone through them yet because I'm doing all the books first, but this one was amongst said books and the awesome holographic image of a hominid skull caught my eye.

Pretty sweet, right? It's the metallic rainbow-y kind that looks 3-D. I took a video of it so you could check out the neat 3-D action. Hopefully it comes out:

National Geographic Vol. 168, No. 5 November 1985

I also came across this other NatGeo mag. The guy with the condor on the cover looks a lot like the guy from The Black Keys (the one with glasses). Perhaps he's a time-traveler.

 Condor-wrangling: not for the faint of heart.

National Geographic Vol. 139, No. 8 May 1971