Old books shops are like a magnet, dragging me into the dusty entrance room that hits you with that musty small of old books, its like a drug, I have to follow the pull and smell.
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I pass the first set of shelves, nothing springs to mind, but that voice in my head says stop, just pick out a book, sit a while and read, my Apple Notes have scanned the books, of authors I have never heard of, and of titles that tell me nothing, that is until my voice says this one, just ease it out carefully, its not been looked at is so long.
I ease the book out and open to the first page, a small signature has been added to the top of the right hand page, its P. P. Thompson, who is that, I turn to the next page, a publisher in London, I turn again and in a type I have not seen before the books title stands proud, not seen for so long, but now light strikes the page, the ink dark and black, I’m hooked, I need to sit and follow the pages.
How many times have I done this, countless number of times I’m sure, and most I have purchased. What drives me is not so often the subject, but the first paragraph.
Most of the books I look at are construction related, and on that subject, I will write a lot and launch a podcast in which I shall talk about old books that I have found, half read, skimmed or just lightly browsed.
I listened to a podcast on “This Week in Space” hosted by Rod Pyle, (https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space/episodes/123 ) and as so often he had a special guest, this time Steve Fentress, who talked about so many things but mostly Meteors & shooting stars, and the like, at the end he mentioned his own website, “The forgotten Bookshelf” in which Steve reads from books that you might never pickup or even look at, but contain so much wisdom from people long forgotten. I listend to the latest podcast as I gardened and was hooked but what struck me was, I had done this so many times, picked up a book and thought Wooooo this is good, and added it to my book shelf.
I sat in my garage drinking a cup of tea and thought, this is a great title, I want to do something similar, but I need a title specific to me, and I came up with “Forgotten books on Hidden Shelves” If you have never been inside an old book shop, this title will be meaningless, but once you do, then you will understand the labyrinth of shelves, like a maze in the grounds of a stately home.
So do I create a new Substack title, no, this is going to be just one of many subjects I want to write, or talk about or just perhaps just introduce here in the “Scays Newsletter”
So in this talk, I look at my books, all from forgotten Shelves, some you might think are forgotten subjects, but they are not. Construction is not always new work, so often it is repair of the old, and going into a repair with a modern mindset is not the way, you should do the research, list the existing materials and try to understand the sequence of operations , for both the original work, and above all the repair or new work.
Next look at the materials, the bond of the brickwork, if there is any, is it lime mortar, sit and ponder the craftsmen who constructed the building, listen to them, they do speak.
As this is a first of a series, I have kept it short and to the point of just one book perhaps the book that started it all, “Barry”
The day I started college, my father purchased this book for me, it was my first construction book, still in imperial, I purchased a metric version a few years later.
Ring bound, it lay’s flat on my drawing board, he also purchased an old cast iron frame stand with a full sized drawing board, together with a left handed “T” square. It was clear, I needed to do a lot of drawing as home work, so this was a major help, no staying behind in an office to do homework, I did it late at night in my bedroom.
But back to the old books and specifically repair to or adding to older buildings. New book on construction do not look at older methods of building, and younger practitioners are never taught how or why, a material was used. They have never heard of the Bylaws thinking the modern Buildinging regulations have alway been there.
So take the time to visit an old book shop, spend some time looking, and when you find that construction book, look after it, give is pride of place on the shelf, look after it.
Scan it and add it to your Epub book library, amrk relevant sections, and above all sit and think, is my detail going to work, sketch refine, and show it to the old guy, who has done it before.
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Todays photo is the “Shoes” on the riverside at Budapest, a sad memory of locals, mostly Jews, shot by Nazi’s during the war, 1945 ish.
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