A room without books...

[rolanni]

So, today, I took a break to visit my friendly neighborhood library, across the hallway, because I have no cash and I must read. According to the online catalog, the college library had a copy of Master and Commander available, and since I've never read any of O'Brien's sea things, and everyone to whom I've ever confessed this failing of character has immediately informed me that I. Will. Love. Them., I figured to give it a try.

The book in question was filed in the PRs, all the way on the far side of the library, but still on the same floor as my office. I arrived in the proper aisle, looked around, and felt. . .eerie. As if I had shrunk, or gone sideways in time, or come home.

The books in that section were books from my childhood -- authors I recognized from so long ago I was someone else; books that were old when I read them, looking just as they had looked, in another library, 40 years and more ago. C.S. Lewis, Frank Yerby, George Orwell, Doris Lessing, A. A. Milne, William Locke. . .I'm forgetting the other names again, even as I type them . . .somebody named Phillpot? Who had shelves and shelves. . . Chloe Marr -- but that's Milne, again...The Red Planet -- another Locke, I think...

...anyway, I finally did get to the O'Briens, and took away Master and Commander, along with Till We Have Faces, because I don't remember reading that one, and The Beloved Vagabondbecause I do. Or at least I think I do.

Strange places, libraries. Anything can happen.


-----
"A room without books is like a body without a soul." Cicero, presumably

Comments

Master and Commander

[kimuro.livejournal.com]

I saw the movie - because Billy Boyd was in it (Peregrine Took of the movies). He played Barrett Bonden. After that, I picked up the books and read every one until I got to the one in which Barrett Bonden died.

I haven't read any since.

Re: Master and Commander

[schulman.livejournal.com]

Augh! ****** dies?! You've got to spoiler-flag that kind of thing!

I was unable to get into the books, but I very much enjoy the audio recordings by Patrick Tull, and I'm currently listening to "Desolation Island" on my commute. You get all the swearing in adorable accents.

[mardott.livejournal.com]

Till We Have Faces. That's on my bookshelf and it's a very worth read.

O'Brien is on my Must Read list, but unfortunately, he's far enough down, I'll have to be retired a few years before I get to him. Not because he deserves to be that low, but there are others that keep crowding him down. You and Steve, for instance. If you'd stop writing books, maybe I could something done.

But no. Don't do it on my account.

[baggette.livejournal.com]

Bite Your Tongue!

Steve and Sharon are my rewards for reading those other things that I "Should" read.

[mardott.livejournal.com]

Ah but see, I'm far too hedonistic. I always take my rewards first.

[(Anonymous)]

I always say Naomi Novik is Patrick O'Brian crossed with Anne McCaffrey.

I like O'Brian but I get distracted in the middle of the battle scenes by figuring out which sail he's talking about --- I'm waay too technical
about the rigging, having sailed on tall ships in the past.

The movie was different but not enough for me to mind it.

I hope you like them.
Lauretta

library deja vu

[amm-me.livejournal.com]

Had a similar experience.

In elementary and junior high, I went to a school that, while part of the local Independent School District, was also the laboratory school for North Texas STate's excellent College of Education, and got extra funding thereby. One result was a really excellent library; the High School library was quite an unpleasant shock to me when I got there.

Well, Lab School's been closed for decades now. But not long ago, I was in the college library, in the building that houses the Science Library, which includes Library Science. I was browsing through the botany section when I happened to glance through an opening in the wall, and saw some VERY FAMILIAR-looking shelves. Found my way in there -- it was the "Lab School Collection," still all shelved together. I sat right down on the floor and read a couple of old favorites!

[thejunebug.livejournal.com]

That's why I love working in one. :D. PS, PR, and PZ = the best!

[(Anonymous)]

I truly hope that your experience is different than mine and that you do enjoy the O'Brien nautical fiction novels. I grew up reading Forester, Pope, Kent/Reeman and others nautical fiction (and non-fiction) books, but could not get even fifty pages into Master and Commander. However, I did like the Russell Crowe movie, despite its warping of history by having a 32 gun frigate be able to defeat an "Old Ironsides" class 44 a decade before the keels were ever laid down.

Brom

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Master and Commander, the movie, was almost completely unintelligible to me. My theory is that it was a fan movie -- i.e., made for the masses who had read the books and already understood the interactions between the characters. Coming to it cold, with no concept of who was what, I was utterly lost.

[(Anonymous)]

I wandered into a small public library like that not long ago. An old building with dark shiny varnished wooden cabinet bookcases that were not plywood but real old woodgrain. And some glass, maybe even beveled.

And most of the original SWALLOWS & AMAZONS. I told them there were the trade paperback reprints of the missing titles a few years ago. They were very interested.

Rod Serling nowhere in sight.

houseboatonstyx

[chazzbanner.livejournal.com]

I love O'Brian I have read the series seven times - but unless I know a friend is adamant about reading in order, I suggest book three as a starting point: HMS Surprise.

[roseaponi.livejournal.com]

Till We Have Faces is lovely - worth rereading, too.

[hapaxnym.livejournal.com]

I am so happy -- TILL WE HAVE FACES is my absolute favorite Lewis, and everyone I know who raves about Narnia and SCREWTAPE says that they've never heard of it.

[gilraen2.livejournal.com]

oh you lucky, lucky woman! to be able to read TILL WE HAVE FACES for the first time. to my mind it's by far the best book Lewis ever wrote, and that's saying a lot.