booksinwernicke.blogspot.com
Books in Wernicke: October 2012
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Tuesday, 30 October 2012. Mr Mudie and his Circulating Library. In London, readers flocked to Mudie's massive emporium on New Oxford Street, where armies of employees would rapidly find the desired volumes selected from Mudie's list. In the large provincial towns there were more branches of Mudie, who also supplied books to local independent circulating libraries, where the same arrangements applied. The firm of Mudie continued into the 1930s but at a much reduced level, finally closing its doors shortly...
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Books in Wernicke: Books that Stimulate the Imagination
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Sunday, 4 May 2014. Books that Stimulate the Imagination. Picador had a knack of publishing out of print and sometimes relatively obscure works, with an emphasis on fantasy and the imagination. However, it was another Picador book that also demanded to be bought - this was 'The Road to Xanadu' by John Livingston Lowes. Subtitled 'A Study in the Ways of the Imagination', this book explores in some 400 pages of text and. Two very different writers, but in each case the rich soil of the mind cultivated and ...
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Books in Wernicke: The Best Ghost Story Collections
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Wednesday, 2 January 2013. The Best Ghost Story Collections. Winter is the season of ghosts, as doors rattle and creak in the wind and bare limbs of trees tap at the window pane. It is a time to huddle round the fire with a good book and what better reading could there be than a ghost story? Over the years, some of these books have found their place in the High Barn Library and I have chosen just nine, with one exception spanning the 60 or so years between 1872 and 1930, during which period the literary ...
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Books in Wernicke: February 2012
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Tuesday, 21 February 2012. The Much Travelled Mr Bartlett. William Henry Bartlett was born in Kentish Town in 1809 and died in 1854 returning from one of his many overseas trips. His life reveals the almost intolerable pressure put on working artists by publishers anxious to meet the rapacious demand of the public for topographical views during the 1830's and 1840's, an age well before photography rendered such depictions of scenery obsolete. Bartlett's early work for Virtue consisted of illustrations fo...
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Books in Wernicke: The Ghost Stories of E F Benson
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Saturday, 3 May 2014. The Ghost Stories of E F Benson. Uniquely amongst his four volumes of ghost stories, 'The Room in the Tower' contains a short preface. Here the author summarises his reasons for writing them:. He scudded past the golden maple and the bay tree, and there they all were in the summer-house which was home. And he took a flying leap up the steps and was among them. 8216;Roderick’s Story’ is unashamedly set at Lamb House in Benson’s fictional Tilling:. It’s right at the top of the h...
booksinwernicke.blogspot.com
Books in Wernicke: January 2013
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Wednesday, 2 January 2013. The Best Ghost Story Collections. Winter is the season of ghosts, as doors rattle and creak in the wind and bare limbs of trees tap at the window pane. It is a time to huddle round the fire with a good book and what better reading could there be than a ghost story? Over the years, some of these books have found their place in the High Barn Library and I have chosen just nine, with one exception spanning the 60 or so years between 1872 and 1930, during which period the literary ...
booksinwernicke.blogspot.com
Books in Wernicke: April 2012
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Monday, 23 April 2012. From Arkham House to Sauk City via H P Lovecraft. In June 2010 we drove into Sauk City in rural Wisconsin; not a big place, but typical of many American small towns and well looked after by its residents. After initial hesitation on account of the price, the book returned home with us and was the first of a number of Arkham House volumes that now are housed in a separate bookcase. August Derleth also contributed some of his own copious work. However, they also published mainstr...
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Books in Wernicke: From one Author to Another
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Monday, 31 December 2012. From one Author to Another. Browsing on the shelves of the High Barn Library reveals only a few examples, but these all have a special resonance. Also included is a typed letter, dated 1923, to Follett signed by de la Mare thanking him for his assistance in seeing the book through its proofs and assisting with its success in America. This was a serendipitous find in Blackwell's antiquarian bookshop in its glorious one time home of Fyfield Manor near Oxford. I choose one from our...
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Books in Wernicke: 2012 Reading List
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Thursday, 1 November 2012. In order of reading, these are the books I have read in 2012, with brief comments and my own star ratings. Our Mutual Friend', Charles Dickens, * * , excellent mystery novel with good characters and atmospheric descriptions. Death and the Future Life in Victorian Literature and Theology', Michael Wheeler, * * *, fascinating account of the Victorian view of death, judgement, Heaven and Hell, using, amongst others, as examples 'Our Mutual Friend' and 'In Memoriam'. The Arcades Pr...
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Books in Wernicke: January 2012
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Thursday, 19 January 2012. For a long time I went to bed early and read books; hard back books, paperback books, comic books, duodecimal, octavo, quarto, folio, picture books, tragic books, humorous books, exciting books, boring books. Then something happened. I was given a Kobo for my birthday and my son-in-law Theo downloaded onto it the complete works of Dickens. (I must speak with him about this.). Emphatically Yes. Is it different from reading a book? Again most authors (Dickens especially) do remin...
