Apple says no to Proj. Gut. app because the db includes..

the Kama Sutra. It appears Wired broke the story about this inexplicable denial. The app, Eucalyptus, was created by Project Gutenberg and therein rest the "problem". The app does not come with any books, you search PG's database and download whatever you want to read.

Among PG's vast db of public domain books is the Kama Sutra, and Apple claims this work, first compiled in the second century CE contains "inappropriate sexual content" [N.B. I assume the PG version is the 1883 "Burton" edition  and not the recent 2002 "scholarly translation"]. 

The interesting issue here is that Apple is precluding it NOT for something "in it", but something obtainable *through* it. Doesn't this mean that Google and all other "search-y" apps need to be blocked as they can "find" dirty text and pictures??? It appears that PG has coded a filter to protect iPhone users from the Kama Sutra and hopes to get the app approved....at least those who don't know how to use Google...or Safari. Oh, wait....hmmm. [Thnx to @ncacensorship]

Censorship, Stupidity, Viruses and Immune Systems...

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."—Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas," The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

There has been an annoying spat of censorship events at various schools recently. The most recent was twitted about by He With His Finger On The Pulse Of All Things Biblio, M. Lieberman of BookPatrol. The story revolves around a teen poetry anthology (POETRY...being read by TEENS. Holy crap) called Paint Me Like I Am:

Paint Me Like I Am is a collection of poems by teens who have taken part in writing programs run by a national nonprofit organization called WritersCorps. To read the words of these young people is to hear the diverse voices of teenagers everywhere.

Unfortunately, "[t]o read the words of these young people" has apparently offended ONE mother of a teen who complained of the Superintendent of the Vineland, NJ school her son attends. Sup. Charles Ottinger read the offending poem and said "in no way, shape or form" should the book be allowed on school shelves. The principle did an interesting, though also egregious, thing in that rather than complying with the Super's order to pull the book, he TORE OUT THE TWO PAGES that contained the offending poem so the rest of the book could be shelved for student use. [Side note, while I appreciate the Solomonetic approach of splitting the proverbial book...tearing pages out is a rather lame solution. You are *still* censoring the book *AND* you have mutilated the book itself.] The poem, which I have tragically failed to find in full online, is apparently laden with "bad words" and written from the point of view of a drunken abusive step-father...arguably not a "happy, shiny people" piece.

I am tired of the Lowest Common Denominator being allowed to define and direct our schools and libraries (and government, but that is another rant). One person complains about a given book [or books] and FAR too many schools/libraries are willing to just roll over and pull the material. Sometimes it is because the administrator is of an equally small mind but more often than not, I wager, it is because it is just not seen as a fight worth having. I suggest that it is a fight worth having...to fail in this fight is to guarantee the ascendance of mediocrity and the rule of the narrowest mind. 

Children do not need to be protected from challenging material, they need *context*. They do not need to be told they are not able/old enough/mature enough to read certain things, they need the intellectual guidance to *understand* the material as written. To refuse the exposure doesn't "protect" a child, it denies from the child a necessary skillset for adult life...the ability to read, absorb, contemplate and embody challenging ideas...in all their forms. 

A virus analogy is quite apt. It is well established that our over-use of certain antibiotics in children has lead to not only to the evolution of drug-resistant bugs but, far more dangerous, the impairment of kids/young adults immune systems to be able to fight common bugs. Kids *need* to get sick...because it is by exposure/illness that the body builds antibodies to fight future infections. We make kids *more* susceptible to *serious* illness by denying them the ability to get sick now and again and, thereby, allowing them to build up antibodies.

Reading...the exposure to the ideas embodied in books...works on the mind in much the same way. The more you read, the greater your ability to comprehend complex/difficult/challenging material in all forms. Context is the critical variable...obviously there is a burden put upon parents (and teacher, etc) to help kids understand the things they read, *especially* when that material upsets or troubles them. But is is through that process of getting upset and resolving those feelings that a child *learns*. Denying children challenging material is simply to deny them the ability to learn.

Children are not infants. They do not need to be protected from the likes of the Brothers Grimm; the racism of Huckleberry Finn or the violence of Lord of the Flies or the language in Of Mice and Men. They need context. They need to be able to read these things and talk about them...with parents, teachers and peers. They embody the things they read and it makes them stronger...and smarter...and able to process bigger, more complex challenges down the road.

Treating kids like they need to be protected from any thought or idea that might challenge/offend/frighten them serves *no* purpose but to impair their ability to rationally analyze the data that bombards them every day. Dumbing down our books and, worse, dumbing down our libraries does nothing but dumb down our children. They deserve better. They *need* better.

At a time when the world is becoming more complex and arguably more dangerous, there are far too many people doing all they can to impair the next generation's ability to analyze and rationalize. Dogmatically held positions are held sacrosanct and those that dare challenge them with logical analysis are dismissed as "elitist". We need kids to read more...to be exposed to more...to build up the intellectual capacity to combat the myopic worldview that is becoming far too prevalent. 

It's 215am...I am confident I should read the above and edit out 1/2 or so...but I wont. I'm tired. It is all Brian Cassidy's fault, for telling me to blog my rant after I had twitted about it. If you are interested, see the ALA's Censorship in the Schools resources and definitely bookmark Blogging Censorship. In the end, I'm with Oscar Wilde:

There is no such thing as a moral book or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.

Selling off Spec. Coll. books for fundraising. Many moving parts...

Two of my favorite bibli-bloggers have posted on the recent USF sale of material from their collection. PhiloBiblos and BookPatrol have written well crafted articles on the issues, with notable differences...both should be read. 

I've nothing to add as to facts and the over-arching issues. Personally, I think such sales are likely to be short-sighted solutions to much deeper issues and are unlikely to serve a useful long-term goals. That said, such efforts can certainly raise considerable sums and one has to think that such efforts are not pursued lightly. But then, broader issues sometimes fall to the wayside.

The most famous of these revolves around the Bodeian's First Folio. It entered the library in 1623 and was sold to a local Oxford bookseller in 1663-4 as part of a small collection of "superfluous library books sold by order of the Curators" for £24. "Superfluous" because the Bodleian had purchased a Second Folio, thought to be "better" and thus, the first was just taking up space. Sir. W. Osler spearheaded the campaign around the turn of the 20th century, to bring the Bodleian's copy back to the library (to the tune of approx. £3000).

I am not certain there *is* a right answer. There are a variety of issues in play and the balance can very greatly. In the end, it is hard to argue that having things come back to the market...to enter private collections and/or other special collections...is not good for the book trade as a whole. The next several months should be interesting....

Reread by accident, repeatedly... (and you?)

I have a question for you: What book (or books) have you rereadby accident? That is, what have you reread only because you did not remember reading it in the first place? On a related note, how many times have you done such a thing?

I do this a fair bit, as I read *very* quickly and will often am about half-way through before it dawns on me that I've read it before...by which point I figure I should just go ahead and finish it. My record is Robert Heinlein's, Friday. I have reread it 3 times by accident [and once on purpose].

I read it as a teenager when it was released in 1982. I was in a airport several years later and saw a copy as a massmarket paperback. I read the back, it sounded good (and range no bells), so I picked it up. Several hours into the trip, I realized I had read it but zipped through to the end. About a decade later, I saw a "new" trade paperback edition (again in an airport) of a book called "Friday". It range a vague bell, but when I read the description, it didn't resonate. Again, somewhere over the midwest, I realized I had read it...and realized I had done this before . 

Finally, I was picking up some trip reading (there is, undoubtedly, a theme here with my lowered focus at/around flying) at a used bookshop and saw a 20th anniv. edition (or some such thing) for a book called "Friday" that range a vague bell...but not enough that I did not stand there and think, "how could I have missed this, it is right up  my alley and I've read so much bloody Heinlein". Again, well into the flight before I realized that this was the same tale that had hooked me repeatedly. 

I reread it in the last year or so...this time on purpose. That one doesn't count. Can you beat that number? I've read Friday 5 times....only twice on purpose. Sad. Very sad.

Bibliomania, concealed books, the most fun I've had in a long time

I have spent the last several weeks working on a project that has been remarkably interesting. The collector was a bibliomanic, in the classic sense. He was a historian, an archivist and a passionate book collector. He also evolved into an obsessive collector. 

The house has approximately 200 linear feet of bookshelves. Using the traditional average of 10/linear foot, there should be about 2000 books or so in the house. Except there were not...there were more...lots and lots more.

After retirement, he began began as series of remodeling and/or cabinetmaking projects. He was quite good. His wife knew he was an avid

collector. Perhaps a bit too avid, but she limited him to his library and his bedroom and one or two other limited areas. 

What his wife never knew, until very recently, is that...when she was out...he filled the knee-walls on the third floor with carefully packed boxes of books. He filled more than one concealed room in the basement with carefully packed boxes of books. Best of all, he built concealed places into several places in the house to hide his gems.

All told, it appears there were at least 15,000 books and very likely +/-20,000 in the house. That is, about 10 to 1 what one would expect to find. His family remains baffled as to when and how he

managed to get all these books into the house...how he managed to bring in the dozens and dozens of packing crates into which he packed his books...how no one knew. 

The pictures show two of the spaces. The first is a hinged door, built into the side of a vent baffle under bookcases in his office. There is a magnet closure that keeps the door shut tight. The space behind it is about 6 inches high, 12 inches deep and about 2.5 feet deep.

The other three pictures show my favorite (thus far). When you remove the bottom drawer of the built in china cabinet he built approximately 25 years ago, you discover a solid base. The base

plates have no movement and appear to be nailed down. It is only when you carefully remove the little spacer between the two plates (seen in the second and third image on the front plate) that the plates can be effortlessly removed. It is simple and elegant and created a cavernous space behind the baseboard.

There have been some great books, though the signal to noise ratio is definitely high. More than anything, however, it has just been wonderful to spend time exploring this collector's life, habits and passion. It has been an adventure I will never forget and has given me a slew of stories I'll be telling...well...forever. Still a ways to go with this, though the heavy lifting is done. I'll be posting in a bit about a few of the things that were part of the collection. I have had *way* too much fun. [N.B. I secured express permission from the family to post about this adventure.]

The Bodleian Bans Stepladders...

From the "I really hope this is a joke" file: Due to safety concerns, Oxford has banned stepladders at the Bodleian Library. This, while relatively silly on its face, is made truly bizarre with the apparent decision "refusing to move the books from their 'original historic location'". 

As a result, much of what is out of reach is...well...out of reach. Students are, according to the article, being forced to go elsewhere to secure working copies.

Stepladders have been in use at the Bodleian for the last 400 years or so...any statistics on injuries and, dare I say it, deaths???

The Private Library - A great new blog on the block...

There is an outstanding new reference/resource blog for bibliophiles: The Private Library. The site's owner is a longtime collector ("overly enthusiastic book collector"), a sometime antiquarian bookseller and a professional librarian (with a MLS w/ a Specialization in Rare Books & Manuscripts)...that is, he is a high-order book geek, to our great benefit.

His posts are well written, cogent, reasonably frequent and genuinely useful (as opposed to my random and often off-topic rants). He posts, as the title implies, on various aspects of the private library...all sorts, all levels and all nuances. As one who spends most of my time in and around collection development projects, it is a great treat to find.

Best of all, however, are the resources he has pulled together. At either side you will find:

GLOSSARIES OF GENERAL BOOK TERMS
GLOSSARIES OF SPECIALIZED BOOK TERMS
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES
BOOKISH ORGANIZATIONS
BOOKISH PODCASTS & WEBCASTS
BOOKISH BLOGROLL
STATE CENTERS FOR THE BOOK

It is, far and away, one of the best reference sites I know of and has leapt to the top of my "Hit Every Day" blogs. Enjoy.

Bibliophiles in the strangest places...

Biblio-folk are showing up in interesting places these days. I joined Facebook a long time ago...and largely ignored it until relatively recently. Over the past several months, however, there has been a tremendous surge in book people (dealers/collectors/etc) who seem to be coming out of the woodwork. The ABAA now has a FB Page (as does Lux Mentis), ready for "Fans" to join and follow, as does Fine Books & Collections. The Rare Book School's Page has nearly 450 Fans... There are also many...many...many groups that are biblio-theme, from collecting to author-specific to elements of the craft.

When I started poking about FB, there were *very* few book dealers who had accounts, now there are literally too many count. Some are active, some on personally, others professionally and some just lurk...but there are a remarkable number of the biblio-crowd on FB and more joining every day. It is rapidly becoming a vibrant network to keep your pulse on the doings of the trade, hobby and/or obsession.

Linked-In is another site I've been for a very long time...more actively when I did more consulting work, but I kept my profile active and periodically checked on bookish elements there. Recently, in addition to a number of "serious" dealers beginning to be found there, more than one "book group" has formed (admittedly, one by me).

Last for today, and certainly not least, is Twitter. I am quite fond of it, as it updates nicely from my iPhone and auto-updates my FB page, killing two feeds with one, so to speak. A considerable number of people are beginning to use it in interesting ways. Publishers are using it around news, booksellers are carefully using it for traffic and sales (a tricky issue, as there is a general "anti-commercial" use sentiment...but very effective in good hands, as here). Personally, I find I tend to post biblio-related missives with a bit of news and a bit of "things that amuse/annoy me"....and I tend to most enjoy those who do the same.

There are beginning to be some good focus-centers for books Twitterers. WeFollow has a well developed "Bookseller" tag (we can be found on page two). There is also a "BookCollecting" tag that I am experimenting with... 

Potentially more useful (and still "emerging") is Twibes, where tweets that share common words can be grouped for easy review. See: Books, BookCollecting, BookDealers and/or Librarians (the last very active, with over 700 members).

This, in addition to the various blogs that are out there...many feeding each other. One of the nice things, frankly, with FB is that many/most of the best book blogs are either mirrored there or are part of NetworkedBlogs there, streamlining one's reading/following (though not, at this point, entirely replacing a good RSS reading). 

There is a tremendous abundance of bookish news, personal and professional. Enjoy the data-stream...

Great evening with the family and an outstanding Indian meal...

I just had the best Indian meal I've had in a very long time. If and when you are in the Brunswick, ME area, I strongly encourage you to enjoy Bombay Mahal. 

They have 15 different iterations of Nan and Paratha, they make their own yogurt, rosewater and chutneys. It was one of the most intricately spiced meals I've had, balance, layered, just wonderful. Do not miss the Moghalai Chicken (Boneless pieces of chicken, soaked overnight in a marinade of eggs, yogurt, ginger, garlic and spices and then sautéed in sweet butter, yogurt and tomato sauce and garnished with almonds). 

They have been there for 18 years. I look forward to eating there for another 18. Oh, save room for the home-made pistachio and cashew ice-cream. 

Happy First of May!

The ballad of the day. Not really safe for work, don't say you weren't warned.