Saturday, December 31, 2005
Resolutions for the new year
I don't have resolutions, I have RESOLVE!
Raise a glass with your beverage of choice this evening to celebrate not only the coming of the new year, and your firm resolve, but also the birthday of Holbrook Jackson, born this day in 1874 in Liverpool - author of the classic The Anatomy of Bibliomania (Scribner, 1931). Styled after Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy. Unfortunately, some might say, as Jackson's prose is a downright dense thicket. Great information within, but man oh man, have you tried to read this straight through? Bibliophile A. Edward Newton said of Holbrook Jackson: "Of all the books in praise of books ever written, this is the most exhaustive and the best. One wonders if Jackson be a man or a whole regiment of men. It would seem that no man's reading could have been so extensive." (originally quoted in the Atlantic Monthly)
With that, it's been a busy week at the shop (people home for the holidays, in here trying to take shelter from their relatives, perhaps?), but no one's around today and I'm headed home early. Happy New Year...
Raise a glass with your beverage of choice this evening to celebrate not only the coming of the new year, and your firm resolve, but also the birthday of Holbrook Jackson, born this day in 1874 in Liverpool - author of the classic The Anatomy of Bibliomania (Scribner, 1931). Styled after Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy. Unfortunately, some might say, as Jackson's prose is a downright dense thicket. Great information within, but man oh man, have you tried to read this straight through? Bibliophile A. Edward Newton said of Holbrook Jackson: "Of all the books in praise of books ever written, this is the most exhaustive and the best. One wonders if Jackson be a man or a whole regiment of men. It would seem that no man's reading could have been so extensive." (originally quoted in the Atlantic Monthly)
With that, it's been a busy week at the shop (people home for the holidays, in here trying to take shelter from their relatives, perhaps?), but no one's around today and I'm headed home early. Happy New Year...
