BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: THE JOYS OF READING

THE FIRST POCKET BOOKS (Circa mid-1500s)

“Tradition has it that the first pocket books  were printed in Venice by the great Ahus Manutius who,
taking advantage of Eastern scholars for Crete and
Constantinople, published an incomparable series of
Handy classics, knowledgeably edited and impeccably
Produced. So popular did these volumes become, that
The 1536 Price List of the Whores of Venice advertised
Advertised the virtues of a certain Lucrezia Squarcia by
Noting that the lady was not only beautiful but also ‘enjoyed reading pocket editions of Petrarch, Virgil, and sometimes even Homer.”



Alberto Manguez in The Spectator 12 April 2003


**
WHEN CERVANTES CAME TO WRITE

"When Cervantes came to write the second part
--the sequel -- of "Don Quixote," he 
incorporated into his novel a real rival
writer Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda, who
had already published a knockoff "Quixote"
sequel of his own. Tolstoy borrowed so much
from his own life, and so directly that he
once remarked that he lacked any imagination.
Kafka edited his harrowing "A Hunger Artist"
on his deathbed while suffering from starvation 
broughton by tuberculosis."

James Wood. "Where I'm Coming From" The New
Yorker (June 14,2021)

**
      READING ABOUT GLORIES OF WAR

As a boy I was an avid reader of G.A. Henry,
and stories about the glory of the Empire by
Rudyard Kipling. The nursery walls featured
reproductions of Lord Kitchener, The Charge 
of the Light Brigade, and The Thin Red Line
(the Guards Brigade) But now these things were
become an inescapable reality for me personally--
             
                  Theirs not to reason why
                  Theirs but to do and die.

What a shambles such nonsense made of all good
common sense. Most probably somewhere in Germany
there was a young man, with much the same ideas
as I had , and one of us quite possibly destined
to shoot and kill the other. The whole thing was
monstrous,utterly and unbelievably monstrous --
irrational, pitiable, ugly, and sordid." 

Baail Rathbone. In and Out of Character: an 
Autobiography (Garden City, NY: Doubleday,1962) 
**

JOHN WATERS ON READING

“It wasn't until I started reading and found books 
they wouldn't let us read in school that I discovered 
you could be insane and happy and have a good life 
without being like everybody else.”

—John Waters, American filmmaker, actor, writer, 
and artist

**

ON CENSORING BOOKS

After parent complaints about the use of racist epithets 
in To Kill a Mockingbird; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; 
The Cay; Of Mice and Men; and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, 
the Burbank (CA) Unified School District superintendent 
issued a statement removing the books from the district’s required reading lists for its English curriculum and 
banned the use of the N-word in all school classes. 
The books will be allowed in classroom libraries, but 
no student can be required to read them. At a board 
meeting, the superintendent stated, “This is not about censorship, this is about righting the wrongs of the past.”



THOMAS MORTON WRITES THE FIRST BOOK TO BE CENSORED IN AMERICA

Linda Cantoni at Hot off the Press writes that “the first two books of New English Canaan are mostly non-controversial, containing Morton’s observations on the native Americans, whom he respected greatly, and on the rich natural resources in New England. It was in the third book that Morton rolled up his sleeves and got down to his real purpose of skewering the New England Puritans, who, he said, ‘make a great shewe of Religion, but no humanity.'” As a result, writes Mental Floss’ Jake Rossen, “his book was perceived as an all-out attack on Puritan morality, and they didn’t take kindly to it. So they banned it,” making New English Canaan what Christie’s called “America’s first banned book” when they auctioned a copy off for $60,000. But you can read it for free at Project Gutenberg, bearing in mind the most American lesson of all from the life of Thomas Morton: when all else fails, publish a tell-all memoir."

from OPEN CULTURE

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LIBRIANS IN MOVIES #1

"Is it any wonder that dad, a librarian
somewhere in Wales, goes Barmy in the book
stacks with the first pretty woman (Mai
Zetterlin) who evinces interest in one of
his favorite volumes (Concise History
of Codpiece)."

TIME (April6, 1962), unsigned review
(perhaps by T.E. Kalem) of Only Two Can Play,
starring Peter Sellers.