THE
MANIA OF BOOK COLLECTING bibliomania
TRICKs of HOW TO BUY BOOKS INEXPENSIVELY, ONLINE, OFTEN A BUCK A BOOK!
HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH USED BOOKS
TIPS on GETTING KIDS TO READ
THE PAYOFF - The really bright people on the Future Highway of Life will meet your KID and think: ' this kid is smart! What dialogue! What WIT! Amazingly well INFORMED. Good judgement. Literate! I want to KNOW HIM! (HER)! Hire/ him or her. THEY will GET RESPECT! They will make the connections, get the jobs.
THE CONVERSE is also true- Your kids will shun morons, miscreants, criminals and dopers! They'll never volunteer for the military and will be in jail less often. Also, your grandkids will have a higher IQ! There's TRICKLE DOWN!
THE WRITERS INDEX
SCREENWRITERs' INDEX
THE VALUE OF ELDERLY NEIGHBORS. We overlook our geriatric resource,
our neighbors.
TALK TO elderly people about what life was like back when. Blacks went
through discrimination in the big cities. Jews went through it in Europe,
during the war. Americans went thru the draft for three wars, and
RATIONING back in WWII.. Admit 'I don't know much, they don't teach this
stuff in school. I'm going to start buying books, used books that are from
that period. Leave it at that. If they say, 'what would you pay? I have
books," go see them. SURF to this page on antiquarian book finders' resources:
http://acqweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/verif_rare.html
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
bibliomania---- Just as a man who
takes pleasure in the conquest of feminine hearts invariably finds himself
at last ensnared by the very passion which he has been using simply for
the gratification of his vanity, I am inclined to think that the element
of vanity enters, to a degree, into every phase of book collecting;
vanity is, I take it, one of the essentials to a well-balanced character---not
a prodigious vanity, but a prudent, well-governed one. But for vanity there
would be no competition in the world; without competition
there would be no progress.
bibliomania In these later days I often hear this man or that sneered at because, forsooth, he collects books without knowing what the books are about. But for my part, I say that that man bids fair to be all right; he has made a proper start in the right direction, and the likelihood is that, other things being equal, he will eventually become a lover, as well as a buyer, of books. Indeed, I care not what the beginning is, so long as it be a beginning. There are different ways of reaching the goal. Some folk go horseback via the royal road, but very many others are compelled to adopt the more tedious processes, involving rocky pathways and torn shoon and sore feet.
bibliomania So subtle and so infectious is this grand passion that one is hardly aware of its presence before it has complete possession of him; and I have known instances of men who, after having associated one evening with me, have awakened the next morning filled with the incurable enthusiasm of bibliomania. .........
Nahhhhh. Really? Man, I would only WISH the love of books were more infectious! BIBLIOMANIA is not nearly contagious ENOUGH! My 4 children were always apalled at the sight of my books and considered them unsightly, problematic and resisted all efforts by me to gift them WITH these books --- if reading them were expected of 'em....and they truly make me wonder how many ways they can and will dump, destroy, burn, lose, trash my treasures the moment I am gone.
The trouble is, I didn't leave them alone at home enough long, boring DAYS IN A ROW to get them desperate enough to read.
I also ponder, HOW does one get a kid addicted to reading? Back in the 1940's, I was always going through my private stack of very good children's books and My Mom, a triple Sagittarius, dragged me to the library every two weeks like clockwork. In the 1950's, I was often left at home with no parents to drive me places and all I had were my parent's bookshelves. Read everything in them. Which brings me to the reality that reading OVID, Maupassant and Pierre Louys at age 15 didn't do my married life any good. My LOVE LIFE yes.
Another way is to turn them into BOOK DEALERS. They are free weekends to hit the garage sales. Don't let them overlook the geriatric resource, those elderly neighbors. Most kids have nothing to say to a senior so teach your child to speak senior's language. Every family had somebody in WWII. As a matter of fact, my father worked at Lockheed in Burbank, building planes. My grandpa left Berlin a few years before the war and, hid in Cassis in Provence with his wife for the duration, then moved to Manhattan then finally Hollywood. Have your children tell the oldsters, 'this was my family's story during WWII. 'I don't know much about it myself, they don't teach this stuff in school. I'm going to start buying books, used books that are from that period." Leave it at that. If the senior says, 'what would you pay? I have old books," then, you and the kids go see their shelves. Seniors live on 1940's prices. A book for 75c is a book well paid. I once knew an old book buyer, in his twenties, rode a bike with a basket, answered ads at Craigs list, came on his bike. If he knew rare books and first editions, he'd have done alright.
Anita Sands can be reached at astrology # earthlink.net
<-------- BACK
TO
HOME PAGE