In 1995 Basbanes came out with "A Gentle Madness", followed in 2001 with "Patience & Fortitude".

This book considers a lot of pressing issues regarding books in society "such as the willful destructin of books and libraries in Sarajevo, Tibet, and Cambodia, .."

In addition he addresses "discards" at libraries. This is the concluding book of his trilogy on the world of books and bibliophiles. This is a First Edition hard back book.

Once I read this volume is will become a Book Ring following the steps of the previous volumes.

Bookring Members

pennina (UK) journaled
LyzzyBee (UK) journaled
AnglersRest (UK) journaled
MaryZee (USA) journaled
ckwini (USA) journaled
jessibud (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) journaled
sqdancer (Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada) journaled
tuff517 (USA) journaled
then back to me. Received April 14th, 2006

Arrived in the post this morning. Many thanks. I'm not reading anything at the moment so I'll crack on with this and pass on to MaryZee when I've finished.

I only managed to read half of this book. It's very interesting and I was enjoying it but in a few days time I shall be computerless for a few months and I didn't want to hang on to the book any longer. I've ordered a copy from the library. Thanks, Rutchmather, for the loan of this book. When I have finished it I shall certainly try his others. I've passed it on to Lizzybee.

Received in the post this morning along with another bookring and an Easter gift - riches, indeed!

This is a beautiful book in itself and I'm really looking forward to it. I may inch into an extra week for it because I do have another Ring in front of it I received a week ago - will let rutchmather and anglersrest know if this becomes an issue.

Thanks for the Easter Card, Pennina!

This was brilliant - my only gripe was that it wasn't as long and dense as Patience & Fortitude!!

This is the third book in his series, and looks at recording media, from clay tablets to digital media, and at the preservation and destruction of books and libraries.

I particularly liked the insights behind the stories - the outcome of Nicholson Baker's fight to preserve newspaper archives; the fact that Nicholas Negroponte's Digital Book is now in the research phase; what happened when Stephen King decided to release a book digitally on subscription, chapter by chapter, with an honour payment system.

I'll leave it to the next readers to find out what happened with all these...

Thanks again for giving me the chance to read this!

Passing on to AnglersRest at the weekend, as she is still reading Patience & Fortitude and I didn't want to overwhelm her!

RELEASE NOTES:

Posted to AnglersRest today.

Book arrived today from LyzzyBee - Thanks!
I won't start reading this though for at least 2 weeks.

Not quite finished, but have PM'ed MaryZee for address.

I've received Mary's address and this will be in the post on its way to the US on 9th May.

I was particularly interested in the details of disregarding newspapers in favour of microfilming. The British Library Newspaper archive at Colindale decided to free up space by disgarding non British papers, the newspapers marked "discarded by the British Library" took up two miles of shelving. ~ Page 224
To my mind, such behaviour is appauling and is destructing our history

Arrived safely in the mail today. I have several other bookrings here now, but will update this entry when I can start on this.

6/2/05 - Just starting on this now.

I'm about half finished with this book, and enjoying it as much as the others. I'll update this later, as I continue to work on it.

Wanted to be sure to include this one quote from the book, as it seemed very appropriate. E. Gene Smith, as one-time Far East field director for the Library of Congress, took it upon himself to rescue thousands of Tibetan books. (pp. 172 - 173) "While Smith earnestly insists that he is not a bibliophile in the sense of being a conventional collector of rarities or curiosities, his activity over the past four decades as a gatherer of books suggests otherwise. This is due to the fact that at the same time he was gathering books for the Library of Congress, he was acquiring even more materials for himself. 'Yes, we have a lot of rare books here, although that was never my primary motivation,' he said. 'I am driven by preserving the cultural identity of a people. That has always been my driving principle. As for these books that I got for myself, I swear, I was doing it because I was interested. I was doing this because I thought, perhaps stupidly, that I could read all these books. But in the final analysis there were just too many.'"
How true...

Thanks for sharing these wonderful books, Rutchmather! I enjoyed all of Basbanes' books, but it does take a while for me to work my way through them.

Thoroughly enjoyed the last chapter, about the future of books. I can't imagine ever losing myself in any form of electronic text the way I do in a book - heck, I don't even like audiobooks! And the concepts of mass storage to store the contents of our libraries - check out the footnote to pp. 278 (on pp. 399) - gigabytes, terabytes, petabytes, exabytes, zettabytes...

And lastly, checked out the website some -
Nicholas Basbanes

Should be sending this off to Ckwini tomorrow - 6/23.

Just received it today. I look forward to reading it!

Finished it and sent it off to "jessibud" today! Each book seems better than the last and I really enjoyed this one. Basbanes' books are such a wealth of information, I've got a reading list to keep me busy for years. LOL

Happy reading, Shelley!

Arrived in my mailbox today. Odd, though, was that there was a sticker from Canada Customs, saying that the package was opened by customs. It was resealed quite well with heavy duty Scotch tape and I wonder what exactly they were looking for since it was so well packed by ckwini, there is no way Customs could have removed the book from the packaging! And I sincerely doubt they did, lol! Anyhow, the book is in fine shape, and I look forward to it!

Which one of you is responsible for that cute little copper page marker? :-)

Oops! Forgot to journal that I mailed this on to sqdancer last week.

I feel terrible for holding this up for so long. There was once a time when I would practically salivate at the prospect of starting such a big fat book. While I want to read this one so very much, I am just swamped right now with so many other committments, that I don't see it happening any time soon. I did, in fact, start it shortly after receiving it but have not managed to get too far. Seems the only time I have for pleasure reading lately is at night in bed, when I can barely prop my eyelids open. I seem to have the attention span of a raisin, these days.

I guess this is one of those books that I will have to purchase for myself and read it as I can, without the pressure of knowing others are waiting. It won't be the first time and likely, not the last. I already have purchased Basbanes' *Patience and Fortitude* for that very reason. Hmmm, I could use a little patience and fortitude, these days, lol!

Thank you, Rutchmather, for your patience with ME! And for allowing me to be part of this ring. I hope it continues its wonderful journey!

Really looking forward to reading this book.

Thank you. I enjoyed Splendor of Letters even more than Patience and Fortitude. And I am definitely looking forward to A Gentle Madness. I will, quite likely, be purchasing a set of these books for my PC.

Sent off this afternoon via surface mail.

Received today, will start ASAP!

I have had this book long enough now to memorize it! I thank Rutchmather for the patience and the opportunity to read this book. It was a bit stuffy, but very interesting. I found the chapter on the Holocaust writings most interesting, very touching and sad. It's funny how controversial and interesting books and media are.

Side note: I paid for and read The Plant by Stephen King. How funny, I had forgotten about that!

"A Splendor of Letters - The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World" has come home to roost for a bit.

It has returned to me with certain embellishments: a leaf, several Tatu Tattoo cards from Mike, a postcard from Christina in OK, and a "Wild Animus" bookmark. I got that book too: haven't read it yet!

Thanks to all who participated.

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Of course just because I have it here doesn't mean it has to *stay*! If you are interested in reading this one, just PM me and I'll have it to you shortly.
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