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A modern Parnassus on Wheels
September 4, 2005 | 9:45 pm
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By Branko Collin
![[photo of books on a plank]](http://www.teleread.com/team//tozierbooks.jpg)
“A word of warning to sensitive bibliomaniacs: Buy loads of old books from dry locales. New Mexico, or people with radiant heat and not forced-air.”
Bill and Barbara Tozier (they run a thousand blogs, of which I only link one), both Distributed Proofreaders, drove a rented minivan 1500 miles as a sort of Parnassus on Wheels; except this time to collect books instead of to sell them. They returned home with 1500 moldy old books, of which a good number are going to enrich Project Gutenberg someday.
“When you’re doing book triage, each experience is different. Unique simple rules must be developed to handle the problems of every different stack of old books, but there are standards rules of thumb.”
The story of a roadtrip from Ohio to Virginia and back, and its aftermath; including the mummies of Philippi, daylillies in West-Virginia, dreams of the interior designers from hell and Oval von Oval, and more.
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Comments:
Great post, Branko! Above all, DP is people, and it’s wonderful to read inspirational and informative stories like the one above. Why, you even linked to a public domain work along the way. – David
Don’t forget to read the public domain work.
The sequel is called The Haunted Bookshop. It’s said to be the bible of the used-book store keeper. Don’t know if that’s true.
Actually, Branko, I once wrote about a real bookstore called the Haunted Bookshop, if I’m not mistaken. Both Morley works need to be on my list. Perhaps you can continue this thread and tell why–beyond the obvious DP-related reasons–you enjoy those books. Ideally others can chime in. I’d love to see more discussion here of the content of DP/PG works. At some point I may do a short, casual posting about Moby Dick, which I’ve been revisting. My theory is that most literary critics today would put down MD as “uneven. Needs more structure. Vivid characterizations and sharp observations but far, far too discursive to qualify as art of the first caliber.” Meanwhile, as a writer, you might enjoy George Gissing‘s New Grub Street. – David
I guess what I like most about these books is the idea that they represent. That you can wake up one day to leave it all behind; buy a horse and a cart, and that cart is covered with little drawers that contain books. And at every farm you stop, and try and sell the right book to the person that opens the door.
The execution, though, I felt was not so good. I never quite understood when the author was being serious and when not.