Books from Sunday

Before I attended the Flag Day celebrations, I stopped by Book Thing. It was very crowded, more so than I've ever seen it. I did manage to find some fun books. Lest you think that my house is stacked from floor to ceiling with things I've lugged home from Book Thing, I do make a point to take things back when I've read them... except if they're something special.

I have a great interest in the National Trust houses in the UK and I finally found a comprehensive guide to these special places - almost 600 pages worth of information on the details. The book gives a brief history of each house and points out what makes the house significant enough for it to be included in the Trust's inventory. I should look at this book at James Lee Milne's book in tandem and see what's changed in the 40+ years between these two books. This is one of the Trust's properties in Wales.

Another useful reference book is Porcelain, which was written by Hugh Tait, the "Assitant Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities" at the British Museum in 1962. Along with a history of porcelain, the book has 90 works of art in full colour. Additionally, it has the marks from some of the premier porcelain-makers across the years.Somehow, I stumbled acros Esquire's Fashions for Men, circa 1957. This is one of those very serious books, which, upon reading a half a century later is hilarious.This one will be heading about 35 miles south of here to become part of the library at Chez Maxminimus, where it will join the singular men's issue of Flair.

I love that regardless of how many times I searched the library or Amazon, I'd never, ever find some of these books, mainly because I don't know they exist. Pure randomness!