Old Book Monday - July 23
Quite a few book bloggers participate in a weekly meme in which they share delicious and mouth-watering pictures of the new books they have recently received. I love strolling through the blogosphere and checking out these pictures. I don’t buy a lot of new books but realized I could still participate by sharing pictures of what I do buy a lot of—OLD books. Hence, “Old Book Mondays.”
This week’s “Old Book Monday” features yet another book in a growing subset... old travel guides. This time, we have "Rambles in Old London" by George Byron Gordon, published in 1924.
I love these old travel guides, mostly for their tone. The preface to Rambles in Old London starts out:
My object in writing this book is nothing more than the gratification of a desire. The task has been done entirely for my own pleasure and for no other purpose whatsoever.
How awesome is that?! I love it! the author then follows this up with:
If, however, someone should say that there are enough books in London, I am ready to deny it; there can never be enough books on London for its variety is infinite.
Even awesomer!
This book is filled with a ton of drawings and photographs - which would have made it a very expensive/dear book to purchase in its time. The illustrations, however, are worth the price alone - the author has combined historical drawings and prints with (then) current photos. All are crisp and beautiful - the book still looks new, ninety years later.
What's especially interesting about this travel book is that it's arranged by theme, not geography.
What I especially love about these old guides is that they serve as a living history tour of a city--a tourist can take one of these old guides and see, quite clearly, how a city has changed over time. In a future post I'll be highlighting two guides to Boston, my own city, that I bought for just that purpose. It has been totally fascinating comparing these old guides to the Boston of today. I hope that I'll have an opportunity to visit London soon, and when I do, I'll be taking this guide along!
What about you? Have any recent book acquisitions you want to share?
For even more book love, visit some of the sites participating in any of the following "weekly book haul" memes:
-Book Haul - hosted by The Non-Reluctant Reader
-Just a Book Haul - hosted by Forever Lost in Books
-Letterbox Love - hosted by Narratively Speaking
-Mailbox Monday - hosted by Marcia Larsen
-Showcase Sunday - hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea
-Stacking the Shelves - hosted by Tynga's Reviews
-Sunday Post - hosted by Kimba, The Caffeinated Book Reviewer
-Unpack This - hosted by Mostly Reveiws