Antique Books

[Kitty]

I went through Project Gutenberg and put tons of antique children's books on my Kindle. Not the same, but very interesting nonetheless.

I like that drawing. That sounds very interesting. Can you give me a link to where these things are?

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Children% ... Bookshelf)

This is the link where you can find the ones I got. I downloaded pretty much every one! I will probably go to the other children's categories and download all those too.

[donnie]

Thanks! That looks like a fabulous site. I was only vaguely aware that Project Gutenburg was there. I will have to do some exploring!

[Kitty]

You must!!! I recommend this fantastic book. It's called Parnassus on wheels.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5311
And its sequel The Haunted Bookshop.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/172

I own an original copy of The Haunted Bookshop and fell in love with it, and was delighted at the time to find there was another! The book is not what you think by just reading the title.
I hope you can have time to read it. It's awesome.

[donnie]

Thanks! I will check into these.

[Kitty]

I found something very interesting on Project Gutenberg. There is an issue of Appleton's Popular Science Monthly from December 1898. This magazine is still in publication, although now known simply as Popular Science. I read an article in that magazine entitled The Playgrounds of Rural and Suburban Schools. What's so interesting about this article is that it could have been written today!
It's astonishing the parallels of today with what the author is trying to convey. It's like they were speaking to my inner 12 year old! It's on point, for sure, and almost like they knew me in my elementary school days.
It's a short article, and I'd recommend reading it, just for the sheer on-point-ness. Here is the link:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43391/43 ... D_SUBURBAN

Let me know what you think.

[donnie]

Wow, I'll look forward to reading this tomorrow (past my bedtime )

I'm most interested to see this, because Popular Science is one of my very favorite things. I have almost all the monthly issues from about 1946 through 1966. I got them when I was a boy from the public library when they purged them. I've read and reread those things countless times over the years—in fact, I was reading one just earlier tonight.

Popular Science is still an interesting magazine, but it isn't the same as it was back in those days. I don't think I've read anything from one that old, though, so that will be interesting to see!

[Kitty]

That's cool to know that you like that magazine! I like the way the old one is written --- I like the simple terms they use while still being intelligent and making important points.
I would love to know the topics they talked about in your issues you have. We subscribed this year to Popular Science, but I haven't read any of them. (Hubby subscribed to 3 or 4 science magazines; they're technically his.)

Oh, on a bit of a side note, yet still related, I also found a book on project gutenberg called The Story of Eclipses from 1899. 'With especial reference to the total eclipse of the sun of May 28, 1900.' Of course, this is of interest because of the total eclipse that we will see on the 21st of August. It's very cool.

[donnie]

Just read the '98 article. Man, is that ever relevant to today! It's amazing. Centralization of the schools is something that's been going on in my area for the last several decades. Every town and community used to have its local elementary school where the students, parents, and teachers all knew each other, and there was community pride. Now everything is centralized. The same with the high schools. Yes, it might save some money, but I think a lot more is lost.

And then, with all government-driven emphasis on testing now, things like *playing*, imagination, art, music, have all gone out the window. We could learn a lot from the 1898 article.

Ok, sermon over.

You're right about the language used. It is on an academic subject, but written in such a way that it's very readable for the average person.

Popular Science has morphed into different things over its history. Back in the early days, it was more of a serious, scientific journal. Later, in the mid-20th century, it became much more focused on a blend of news of the latest inventions together with do-it-yourself types of articles—things like auto mechanics, woodworking, etc. Then later, the do-it-yourself articles went away. I guess other specialty magazines cover those areas now.

My favorite things in the issues I have are the story-type articles, especially the Gus Wilson auto mechanic stories. Here is one of my issues, the February 1964 issue. I don't know if the Gus Wilson story would be anything you'd be interested in, but you can check it out on page 178.

https://books.google.com/books?id=qS0DA ... &q&f=false

[Kitty]

Neat! Thanks for the link. I'll look at that in a little bit.

[Kitty]

I don't think I've linked to this one before. I just recently discovered The Anti-Slavery Alphabet from 1846. It's astonishing.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16081