Have not posted for a while because I have been traveling – pleasure and then business – with limited connectivity. I saw this story this morning in the Wall Street Journal, “A House to Look Smart In.” It talks about how some people – 30 to 55 year-olds with money – are hiring people to design their libraries in order to look smart and well-read. There are probably other reasons that are not so cynical. The article also talks about luxury publishers and rare book dealers, as well as collection developers. All of this in opposition to the rise in e-publishing and the heralded demise of ink and paper books.
I particularly liked this quote from the rare book dealer, Donald Heald, “If you want to own a great atlas of London from the 18th century, that when you hold it in your hands you’re transported, there is no app for that.”
I have an e-reader and a Kindle and I still buy books and go to the library and lend and borrow books from my friends. I don’t know what that says about me, except that, as you know, I own over 300 cookbooks. More about them later.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 