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Oct. 10th, 2004 03:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikI'm not really a fan of buying new books online. Given a choice, if I'm buying stuff, I'd rather find a nice independant bookseller and drop my money there. There's a time and a place for it, certainly, but... eh. I'm glad the service exists, it's a wonderful thing, but about as exciting as drainage systems. (Which is to say I can get excited about it, but rarely bother to.)
Last week I ordered a number of used books online, however. One text on mycological microscopy, an out of print chinese dictionary, YR Chao's book on Language and Symbolic systems, and a cell biology text (the latter being the only one which has not yet arrived).
It's surprisingly like getting presents in the mail. I'd never seen Chao's book before. It is red and black and white, paper bound, and looks like it could have come from the sixties or seventies. (It was printed sometime after 1968.) While it is in good condition, the spine is faded. (The mushroom book isn't substantially different than any other copy of the same book I've seen, it just has more character. And was cheaper.)
The dictionary is completely unlike the only other printing of it I'd seen before. It is small, a little smaller than a standard paperback, and cloth bound, but the binding is very thin and light. The pages, too, are fine, that smooth, translucent paper one sees in pocket bibles. (Probably an apt analogy, if I continue to do classical this book will probably take on some kind of spiritual significance in my life. There is this strange almost symbiotic relationship one forms with one's dictionary doing intense translation work. You reach this point where you tap on the pages, and they open to the right place...)
Last week I ordered a number of used books online, however. One text on mycological microscopy, an out of print chinese dictionary, YR Chao's book on Language and Symbolic systems, and a cell biology text (the latter being the only one which has not yet arrived).
It's surprisingly like getting presents in the mail. I'd never seen Chao's book before. It is red and black and white, paper bound, and looks like it could have come from the sixties or seventies. (It was printed sometime after 1968.) While it is in good condition, the spine is faded. (The mushroom book isn't substantially different than any other copy of the same book I've seen, it just has more character. And was cheaper.)
The dictionary is completely unlike the only other printing of it I'd seen before. It is small, a little smaller than a standard paperback, and cloth bound, but the binding is very thin and light. The pages, too, are fine, that smooth, translucent paper one sees in pocket bibles. (Probably an apt analogy, if I continue to do classical this book will probably take on some kind of spiritual significance in my life. There is this strange almost symbiotic relationship one forms with one's dictionary doing intense translation work. You reach this point where you tap on the pages, and they open to the right place...)
