chuck houston III: March 3, 2007 The Secret Lives of Bibliophiles

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

March 3, 2007 The Secret Lives of Bibliophiles

Are you a bibliophile? I am. The signs include the constant inspection, discussion, collection, and reading of books, as well as books about books. Well my friends Jodi Simpson and Pete O'Malley are bibliophiles, too and we indulged ourselves last Saturday, March 3. First, we hung around my home library, known as the Vermont Library. Hey, that's Jodi up on the ladder (predictably, she's in the European fiction and literature section).

Below, Jodi and Peter are posing in front of the wall of books. I have about 1,000 books.
On Saturday afternoon, we drove from Nashua, NH up to Henniker, NH on back roads. It took almost an hour to get there. When we arrived in Henniker, we had an awesome lunch at Daniel's. Here's a photo below of Peter and me. Peter and I have lived in the same room (Wheeler 109 at Holy Cross College), 18 years apart. He works at Harvard now.
Look at this couple! Jodi and Peter got married in July 2005, on a boat on the Charles River between Boston and Cambridge.
Jodi is, arguably, a lucky woman. She's in the good hands of a couple of Crusaders. Jodi is really cool, plus she's from Australia, so she's even cooler.

Just outside the restaurant, the semi-frozen Contoocook River rushes by.

Ok, the photo below is the outside of one of the best book stores in the world. I kid you not, you are looking at the Old #6 Book Depot of Henniker, NH. Note the brown barn on the left side of the house. The barn contains 150,000+ good quality used books, all organized by subject.

The anticipation is palpable ! Below is Peter and Jodi at the front door, about to enter a bibliophile's heaven on Earth.

Here's a photo of me up on the ladder in one of the aisles on the second floor.

Below, you can see the heating system for the book store: a wood stove.

A book -buying frenzy ensued, with Jodi and Peter scoffing up about 10 books, with a focus on classic literature.

Below, well, someone gave me a pulpit of sorts, so I'm pontificating about something...most likely some baffling tidbit of minutia.

Here are the three books that I bought. This first one is by a well known neuroscientist. Antonio Damasio explains how "emotions and feelings contribute to reason and to adaptive social behavior." This book was published in 1994.

This next one is by Arthur C. Clarke, my favorite science fiction author. This particular book was published in 1986, and arrived at The Old #6 Book Depot as a used book in 1987. Twenty years later, I walked in and bought it. It's a first edition hardcover in perfect condition. I can't wait to read it. Arthur C. Clarke is 89 now and lives in Sri Lanka. His 60+ books have sold over 50 million copies.

This last book is by Harvard professor Howard Gardner who introduced the theory of multiple intelligences with this 1983 book.

If you check out Jodi's bag in the photo below, you'll notice it's from Strand's bookstore in NYC, another amazing bookstore. Jodi and Peter were just there a few weeks ago. This photo, though, is at the "Old #6 Book Depot"