tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28133718.post8629880603588278855..comments2023-06-28T22:58:28.247+10:00Comments on Sixth In Line: The threat within ourselvesElisabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04015624747225433940noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28133718.post-89847543297009172132015-05-19T01:01:27.815+10:002015-05-19T01:01:27.815+10:00I’ve never thought of books, even the many I have ...I’ve never thought of books, even the many I have bought, as mine. I know I will give them away for others to read and pass on.. even the books I hold dear and have forgotten are still on my shelves, I see as mostly the vehicles holding some precious or not so precious story inside, rather than being the story themselves. <br />Knowing from your previous posts the nature of the relationship between daughter and father, it is easy to understand the pride and prejudice of it all☺<br />Anthony Ducehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17476865809734682418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28133718.post-30374103983798951352015-05-18T20:22:10.153+10:002015-05-18T20:22:10.153+10:00My wife and I lived in the east wing of Mellerstai...My wife and I lived in the east wing of Mellerstain House for five or six years from late 1995. This beautiful Robert Adam house is the home of the Earl of Haddington and his family, who live in the west wing. <br /><br />The main house is open to the public during the summer and we used to be on duty to help the visitors as they toured the house.<br /><br />The library is one of the most impressive and beautiful of all the rooms and contains a large number of books collected by the first owner during the 18th century. Very fine leather-bound books which bears the owner's ex libris mark on each frontispiece or the inside cover.<br /><br />These books require careful handling when being cared for by experienced librarians-cum-preservationist and is a very lengthy procedure. Happens only now and then.<br /><br />These books are seldom read but they are, sometimes, made available to scholars and others who need to do detailed research into a topic that one or more of these books cover. <br /><br />This collection of old books is an asset and a liability at the same time. One would NEVER write anything on any part of each book, nor underline or 'dog-ear' a page. I would NOT want to own them and if I DID I'd flog 'em straight away! OK, I'm a schmuck but no worries.<br /> PhilipHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811831703263176415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28133718.post-57155131016127358852015-05-17T20:46:48.255+10:002015-05-17T20:46:48.255+10:00I suppose at some time I must’ve written my name i...I suppose at some time I must’ve written my name in a book. When I was a kid. None of the books I currently own have my name in them. An address book has. My name and several address crossed out but not this address. I haven’t contacted any of the people in the book since I moved here. Nor when I was in my last flat. I’m not sure about the one before that. Probably not many. I do underline books. Some books. When I was young my dad taught us a method of underlining in three colours, blue, red and green in that order. He’d picked up the method from a professor—in my mind it was a professor—who’d said that a text hadn’t been studied properly unless it had been underlined in four colours—he added black to the mix—but Dad found that three colours sufficed and I concur; few paragraphs have more than three main points and where they do you just cycle the colours. I never took to highlighters. They weren’t neat enough. I was never one for marginalia either. I don’t think I’ve added comments to any book I own although I do own books where their previous owners have had their way with them. <br /><br />When I gift copies of my books to people I sign them because it’s expected but I’d rather not. In that respect I’m glad fame’s avoided me. I’d hate to do a book signing. I write with a ruler as you’ve probably guessed. Someone once asked me if I’d been in the army. Apparently it’s a thing there. So they said. First I’d heard of it. I began doing it because I’d noticed my handwriting was disintegrating—this would be in the early eighties—and so that was when I finally developed my own distinct style. Before that I wrote like my dad. As a kid he’s written down the alphabet for me and I copied it. My mother’s handwriting was big and a bit childish; it suited her. Dad’s was smaller and neater. At the same time as I introduced the ruler I also began buying fountain pens and soon began practicing with italic nibs and incorporated some of actions into my regular handwriting which slowed me down a little and made me neater which is what I’d been aiming for. Now, of course, like the rest of us I never write anything of any length by hand. Even poems I work out in <i>Word</i> and why not as I always have a computer close to hand.<br /><br />I don’t believe energy is good or bad. Its expenditure can have good or bad effects but it’s like a hammer: a hammer can tap tacks into a carpet or beat a guy’s head in. In neither scenario is the hammer good or bad. I have a sentimental attachment to certain books but that emanates from me; the book is merely an <i>aide-mémoire</i> and I need as many of these as I can amass these days. So I don’t believe in bad juju or anything of that ilk. Ridding oneself of reminders of an unhappy past does make sense though.<br /><br />I avoid lending books to people quite simply because they never (virtually never) return them and I resent them for it. I’d said before that I’m not a materialist and I’m not but being in a room surrounded by books brings me pleasure. Some people get that from their gardens. Not me. Gardens are hard work. Bookshelves only trouble me to dust them occasionally. Very occasionally. I can’t imagine sitting in a room surrounded by backup drives and feeling anything remotely like how I feel in my office even though I spend very little time in there nowadays. It’s like a security blanket. It’s there whenever needed.<br /><br />I don’t go to conferences any more. Home is safe. Outside not so much. I was watching the news this morning and apparently IS has been smuggling their supporters onto ships alongside genuine refugees fleeing Syria. Everything gets tainted. Who would want to blow up a hall full of Australian psychologists? Not sure where Islamic terrorists stand on Freud. Can’t imagine they teach him in their schools.Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28133718.post-35283212843660518252015-05-17T20:43:07.970+10:002015-05-17T20:43:07.970+10:00Having a guard and high security disturbs me. I se...Having a guard and high security disturbs me. I see guards outside Jewish institutions and while I have sympathy with the reasons, it disturbs me that it is felt to be necessary. I won't even start on private security at buildings and nightclubs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28133718.post-91558458797001848332015-05-17T15:47:03.960+10:002015-05-17T15:47:03.960+10:00My mother wanted me to write my name in my books b...My mother wanted me to write my name in my books but I resisted because I hated to mar the nice clean book. Maybe there was some element of resistance to the name itself. I don't know. I never grew to be one who marked up books, even in college. Glenn Ingersollhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10674475308395975995noreply@blogger.com