I am responsible for getting books onto the shelves in Special Collections. While student employees shelve most of our books, for a variety of reasons many books end up on my desk. This last week there seemed to be such a varied assortment that I thought these books might make an interesting blog post.
The oldest book that I handled was Subnotata hic continentur Magni Athanasij in psalmos opusculum. Enchiridion Epicteti stoici. Basilij oratio de invidia. Plutarchus de differe[n]tia inter odiu[m] & invidia[m]. Tabula Cebetis Thebani . This book was published in 1508, the same year that Michelangelo began to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling and five years before Juan Ponce de Leon set foot in what was to become Florida. This book, written in Latin, is concerned with Christianity, doctrinal theology and early Church history. There is a special feeling that comes from holding a book produced over five hundred years ago.
The next book that caught my eye was Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Our copy was printed in 1948. I had this Little Golden Book when I was a child. This classic was a favorite of mine, and modern retellings of this story still entertain me.
The Boy Scouts of America; a handbook of woodcraft, scouting, and life-craft, published in 1910 triggered some very fond memories of “my year as a Boy Scout.” Since it was on my desk, I spent several moments looking at how to tie bowline and slip knots (one I remembered, one I had forgotten.)
Til huttetuenes land is our Norwegian translation of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I love the familiar cover with the unfamiliar Norwegian words. This book was used in a class on children’s literature.
The last book I want to mention is The Great Airport Mystery by Franklin W. Dixon. This is a Hardy Boys adventure. I remember watching the Hardy Boys on the Mickey Mouse Club on our first TV, and reading several of the books in this series. This is one that I haven’t read.
Perhaps someday.
Jim Bricker
Senior Library Technician
