Book Reading

[Kitty]

I decided that I'm going to start reading as many of my antique books as possible. This is my goal this week, and hopefully it will continue till I'm out of books!

I'm going to be posting about them here, with possibly a more in-depth blog post on each of them in the future. Right now I'm going to rate them with a star system in this thread. One star is the worst, and five stars is the best. This will all be based on how I feel about the content of the book as I finish. Please feel free to discuss and rate books that you've read in the past, or have currently finished reading. My first finished book is:

Poems In Praise of Practically Nothing (1928) by Samuel Hoffenstein

It's a collection of poems, and I give it a two star rating, because given the size of the book, I didn't like enough of the rhymes to give it more stars.

[donnie]

Sounds like an excellent project! I look forward to seeing your reports.

[Kitty]

Sounds like an excellent project! I look forward to seeing your reports.

Thanks! I appreciate the encouragement!

My second book is Let's Travel On (1940) - Arthur I. Gates & Jean Ayer

This one's a school book with lots of great stories and beautiful pictures. After each entry/story there are even suggested activities and questions to consider. It includes where the story came from, who wrote it, and even tells which books to find stories pertaining to the content in the story we just read. For example, if the story was about a bear who had a run in with bees, they suggest good reading materials about bees, bears, and to top it all off, it even tells the reader if it is a hard read. I'd say this book was probably written for 4th or 5th graders.
Some of the stories are true, telling about inventors and historical events. Because of this, I actually learned some things from this book.
With all these elements combined, I think a five star rating is very fair.

https://archive.org/details/letstravelon00gate

[donnie]

That book sounds up my alley. I looked at the preview and noticed that it has one of my favorite little poems, Primer Lesson by Carl Sandburg, on p. 286.

[Kitty]

I just finished my third book, this one called

The Money Moon (1911) by Jeffery Farnol.


This was so fantastic; I loved it from beginning to end. It's a romance novel, but not one of those sloppy lovey-dovey type of romance novels. It's very romantic, all the same, and one of those that grabs you by the heart in many parts. It's so well written, and one of those that flow so well, as many books of this era do. It's always refreshing to read books of this time period, as it is such a contrast to the books of the mid-to-late 1800s.

I'm pleased to say that this whole book is on gutenberg.org.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10418

[Kitty]

My fourth book was the short story

King of the Golden River (1886) by John Ruskin

I have two editions of this, one is 1886 and the other is 1946. I opted to read the older publication.

This edition, labeled 'Classics for Children' was published for children for use in schools. On the very first page, the book is claimed by "Gale A. Boster 7th grade".
It's a story with a moral, a moral of charity and kindness. It has some cool pictures, and is a very nice story.

Here is the cover of my book:

IMG_20200409_182818033_1_1.jpg (61.28 KiB) Viewed 8704 times

This is on gutenberg. Of course, this is not the same copy, but it's the same story.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/701/701-h/701-h.htm

[donnie]

Very interesting! The Money Moon is an odd title. What does it refer to? And in what time period is King of the Golden River set?

[Kitty]

Very interesting! The Money Moon is an odd title. What does it refer to? And in what time period is King of the Golden River set?

The Money Moon refers to a little story that the main male character tells to the little boy.
The little boy wants to go off to 'seek his fortune' (the boy is probably no older than about 10) for his Aunt, who is very much in debt. He feels like it is his responsibility to take care of her, although the aunt is really a very independent person. To deter him from going off on his own, the man tells him to wait for 'The Money Moon'. He tells him that we don't know when it will come, but you will know it when you see it, and that will be the perfect time to seek a fortune. Anyway, it ties into the story very much, and ends up being a central part of the story.

King of the Golden River is basically a fairy tale, written in 1841, and published in 1851.

[donnie]

Thanks for the explanation. "The Money Moon" - intriguing title and cover.

[Mrs. Danvers]

The old books sound delightful. I'm rereading some of Agatha Christie's earlier books written between the two world wars.
It fun to revisit old friends as I think of her books and Poirot and Miss Marple.

And with my crappy memory I can hardly ever remember who the murderer was.