Lovejoy

[den]

Lovejoy was a completely brilliant series from the UK in the early to mid 90s. it was about an antiques dealer who could sense things of age when he was near them.

I felt like him today as I wandered through Steptoe's 2nd Hand Store. I was wandering around, vaguely wondering what would be worth buying, when I stopped at a book case full of crap books like Dick And Jane. My eyes fell on three books in one corner. They were old. One was pre-WW2 old, and judging by the leather spines on the other two I guessed they were pre-1900s.

I opened the cover of the oldest looking one.



Needless to say, I bought them.



It's BRILLIANT! The bloke writes about using Mr Leewanhoek's new invention to look at the animalcules in stagnent pond water, Of Vulanof: "That there are fcarecely any Countries that are much annoyed with earthquakes, that do not have one of thefe Fiery Vents, And thefe are conftantly all in flames." and that light "it has the instataneous swiftness of almost two hundred thousand miles in one second of time, being much swifter than sound or the bullet from a large gun."



The second book is about diesel engines and was written in 1928. It's packed with the theory of the operation and has many line diagrams.



The third book is about the geogpraphy of Scotland, and was written in 1790. it has this wonderful hand-coloured map in the front.



All in all, I think it was $10 well spent.

Comments

[sjwt.livejournal.com]

do i have to say how much i hate you :P

[lonita.livejournal.com]

More than well spent. Ooooh. :>

[tygermoonfoxx.livejournal.com]

Are you a bibliophile too? There's a place here called Chamblin's Book Mine that advertises itself as the largest repository of "used, rare, and nonexistent books". Unfortunately, the man knows his books so I pay top dollar for mine. I have a find old collection of leatherbound classics, each dating to the early 1900s. Nothing so old as what you found though. I'd wager they never knew what they had. The books appear to be in near mint condition and are probably worth a couple of hundred each.

I just find stuff.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

The cover of the oldest is in very poor condition and has detatched from the spine, but I have them both. I bet someone brought in a box of old books and the shop owner made up an amount of $10 for the tree of them. They weren't priced.

I found my way into the store at Ross On Wye in the UK and had to be physically dragged from there. 8) I couldn't afford anything they had on offer, or I would have bought the 1st printing 2nd edition Lord Of The Rings they had. (I made myself feel better by taking a trip on a canal boat, but that's another story)

[fearghaill.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what I'm more annoyed at you for - making such an awesome find, or getting Blinded By The Light stuck in my head. ;) That looks like cool stuff man. And for $10 it seems to me like you got one hell of a deal.

Oh, I should probably introduce myself shouldn't I? I'm a friend of aiobheil, and she suggested yours was a journal well worth reading. It seems she was right.

[ldy.livejournal.com]

WONDERFUL!! :D

[nimma.livejournal.com]

BTW, if anybody in the SF Bay Area is interested, Lovejoy has been playing lately on one of the local cable channels. It's a great show.

[smeeeko.livejournal.com]

Wow! That is so amazingly lucky! I love old maps.. and this is just a wonderful find (all of them really, but a map from the 1700's?? ) Can I say "wow!" again??? =)

Not used book stores:D!

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

If you are ever in the vicinity of an Antiques Roadshow
Tour you might want to take them there. Especially the Scotland
maps. Scotland in 1790. My Scot/Irish ancestors were newly settled
in what would eventually be Kentucky that year.

Did I mention that half the books I own come from used shops, sales
and dropped-in-on things? It;s hard being a book junkie, I tell ya:D.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

Congrats. Have you thought about copying that map, restoring the copy and framing it? I've got a weakness for old books and maps. *grin*

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

The map is a part of the book, so removing it would be wrong.

I have other old maps hanging on the walls: NSW/Vic/SA in 1860, Tasmania in 1850, and Sydney &NSW in 1823.

Re:

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

I'd never suggest damaging the book. More like taking it somewhere they can make a full sized scan and then working on the scanned image. Making repairs, etc.

I love old maps. I've also seen old blueprints framed as art. A friend had diagrams of a tug boat framed that was great.