Potpourri: Books. All about books.

by Elizabeth Prata

Christians are readers, usually. We read THE Book, the Bible. We read devotionals. We read sermons. We read Christian matter from days of old like the Puritans, and modern stuff published today.

I love books. I always have. When I was growing up there were always books around. My father read business books and trade magazines. He had a magazine stand next to “his chair”, and a good lamp to aim the light directly on what he was reading. There were always one or two books on the table next to his chair. I found that same vintage lamp in an estate sale store a few years ago, and I bought it.

My mother always read books and had a floor-to-ceiling library in her house. I often liked to look at all the titles, Leon Uris’ Exodus, John Galsworthy set with Swan Song, The Silver Spoon, etc. Reference books like atlases and books on the Renaissance ignited my imagination. I know many of you love books too.

Anyway, it seems that a treasure trove of Middle Ages books was found in a Romanian church tower! This is so cool!

‘Forgotten archive’ of medieval books and manuscripts discovered in Romanian church

From Romania, we go to Turkey to find that Turkish garbage collectors have created a library from discarded books. This story starts:

“Yes, there is a library in Ankara composed entirely of books thrown out (presumably) by people who hate reading (or who work in publishing). After Turkish garbage collectors began finding more and more trashed books, they decided to start organizing them in an abandoned brick factory—and voila, a library was born.”

“At first, the surplus books were lent out to friends and families, but as the library gained in popularity the garbage collectors opened things up to the public, who also began to donate books. With a collection of over 6,000 books, the local municipality, Çankaya, found room in the budget for a full-time library employee, and has converted a garbage truck into a mobile library that doubles as a donations truck.”

Go here to read the full story.

We have some photos of books I found on Twitter-

Autumn and Books

Books vs. Kindle-

The Old Florida Bookshop in Ft. Lauderdale, FL is the coolest antiquarian bookshop I’ve come across in years. Check out their website: Purveyors of antique maps, rare prints, ephemera, antiquarian books.