tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post2846177335408191568..comments2024-03-27T18:24:19.683-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: If I were a rich man ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-84209022440125832632012-12-11T20:55:15.906-08:002012-12-11T20:55:15.906-08:00Hadn't thought of it that way, Anon. at 12/11/...Hadn't thought of it that way, Anon. at 12/11/12 2:50 AM.<br /><br />I think you're right.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06774771559007049279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-75939322114782152772012-12-11T02:50:49.181-08:002012-12-11T02:50:49.181-08:00I understand the aesthetic superiority of printed ...I understand the aesthetic superiority of printed books to a degree, but give the circuits their due. <br /><br />The Great Joe Sobran had to liquidate his library of several thousand books when he was forced to move to a more humble dwelling. If his stacks were neatly shelved on an Amazon server, he could have kept them all and the cost of moving them would have been the 70 bucks for a kindle. You can't bring your library to the hospital or nursing home.<br /><br />Don't discount the benefits of ebooks. You can read them on your phone while waiting on the line at the supermarket instead of thumbing through Star magazine. The font can be made larger so that your collection can be converted to large print as you age. There are the innumerable obvious benefits, like keeping a million book library on your smart phone. I'm not sure if you can hand down books. I bet you could get away with it as long as you pass along your passwords. <br /><br />You have to put some trust in guys like Jeff Bezos - he is an intellectual and Amazon is affiliated with the The Long Now Foundation in its efforts to preserve information. <br /><br />I ask all ebooks detractors to at least yearly read one ebook if only to mark the advancement in the technology. Let's do it on <a href="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Justin_Knapp_Day" rel="nofollow">Justin Knapp Day</a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-26334184643187229052012-12-10T20:22:01.298-08:002012-12-10T20:22:01.298-08:00"DYork said...
Suzzallo Library looks impres..."DYork said...<br /><br />Suzzallo Library looks impressive as architecture but maybe not in actual books."<br /><br />Most of the books are in a 1960s-modernist addition hidden behind the cathedral.Mr. Anonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-53654873800109120162012-12-10T17:26:17.435-08:002012-12-10T17:26:17.435-08:00As the recent festivities in the U.K. taught us, y...As the recent festivities in the U.K. taught us, your library is the one room that won't be looted. Your Nook or Kindle can be mistaken for a cell phone putting your life in danger.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-4774673708627323232012-12-10T15:12:38.585-08:002012-12-10T15:12:38.585-08:00I used to visit Scribner's in midtown Manhatta...I used to visit <a rel="nofollow">Scribner's</a> in midtown Manhattan just to climb on the ladder (1980s). (Ok, so I bought a couple books there too.)<br /><br />Libraries have a lot of strange lore associated with them. NYU's library is 12 stories of interior balconies all the way down to a floor with a dizzying black & white pattern on it. The whispers were of multiple suicides. Kids by the dozen on 12 would take one look at that floor and... Another whisper had it that the library had sought preventative measures in the Christian cross: the railings (close-set upright metal pickets) were stamped in a cross-like pattern. "If anyone knowingly jumps over THAT," a Catholic student told me smugly, and left the sentence hanging in the air.<br /><br />About 8 years ago in Jacksonville, FL, $50 million was spent on erecting a giant multi-story library downtown. I often visited when it was brand-new. What struck me was the waste of space: large holdings held in an even larger vastness, with the marble lobby on every floor dominating the little side rooms where they kept the stacks. Also, it must be said, all the media and exhibit rooms seemed to host wall-to-wall Holocaust exhibits non-stop. One especially awful one consisted of large, innumerable crayon doodles made by local crackers attending public elementary schools; their doodles authoritatively depicted scenes in gas chambers and the crying faces of survivors. Another thing that struck me was the high number of young poor black boys running through the library; their mothers obviously brought them there from North Jacksonville. I moved out of the city before I could make more notes.<br /><br />Kindle vs. paper: printing I can understand, circuitry I cannot. So I feel closer to a book. It feels real. I am totally in charge of the object conceptually and physically. A Kindle or Nook, not so much; in fact it imposes its protocol and rules on me, instead of the reverse. Oh sure I can twiddle the knobs but that's not the same thing.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06774771559007049279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-29383987369596546652012-12-10T10:04:46.536-08:002012-12-10T10:04:46.536-08:00"Kindle is fine if you're the type who li...<i>"Kindle is fine if you're the type who likes to read Malcolm Gladwell, David Sedaris, or other popular writers, but if you've got any sort of serious specialized reading interests then there's probably tons of old books you want to read that aren't on Kindle."</i><br /><br />Well, many of the really old books are available on Kindle for free. Of course you aren't restricted to using the Kindle when the book you want isn't available for it, but it's a huge time saver and trouble saver when you can. I find it hard to imagine any really devoted reader getting by these days without one.Matthewnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-55974768800496841082012-12-10T09:26:13.763-08:002012-12-10T09:26:13.763-08:00Oh, the envy that picture inspires. I still miss ...Oh, the envy that picture inspires. I still miss the old card catalogue, and then going through the darkened stacks on the various mezzanine levels in my college library, and finding all sorts of unexpected treasures as I searched the shelves. My late father used to take me through the Library of Congress stacks when I was young. I have an iPad (a gift I did not request) with a kindle app, and I use it for modern, forgettable reading. I also have overstocked bookcases and, given the finances and space, would have a whole lot more. I loved roaming the old used bookstores (in college, when visiting Chicago once, when studying in the UK). The British Library's reading room isn't too shabby, either.<br /><br />Technology has its uses, and I can research things online just fine, but that thrill of the serendipitous find just isn't there. Of course, I have a never finished MA in Bibliography and Textual Criticism (and another in International Relations), so I'm a thorough anachronism in any event.Sheilanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-28220451919002991302012-12-10T07:44:35.766-08:002012-12-10T07:44:35.766-08:00{whispers} It might be heretical but gutenberg.org...{whispers} It might be heretical but gutenberg.org let's you have out of copyright works at your convienence on HD, Kindle or other such device. That makes it your library.{/whispers}<br /><br />The point of having such a large library is that others might use it.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-11189928449622758322012-12-10T07:23:36.992-08:002012-12-10T07:23:36.992-08:00"but if you've got any sort of serious sp..."but if you've got any sort of serious specialized reading interests then there's probably tons of old books you want to read that aren't on Kindle, aren't on any of the book piracy sites, and in many cases probably aren't even in your local university library. Owning a lot of physical books is the only way to go."<br /><br />All of those old books are in the public domain, and most have been uploaded to google books, gutenberg.com, archive.org, etc. Granted, usually they haven't been formatted for kindle (gutenberg does the best job with that), but you can read pdfs on the kindle anyway, it's only a little more inconvenient. Getting a kindle has vastly increased my consumption of old books.FredRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-31289482260122832142012-12-10T06:38:45.695-08:002012-12-10T06:38:45.695-08:00"Truth said...
I guess he hadn't gotten ..."Truth said...<br /><br />I guess he hadn't gotten to "How to Win Friends and Influence People" yet."<br /><br />All he did was piss off some black heckler by saying something that any number of white people in the audience were probably already thinking. But, my God, talking to black people like they talk to each other?! Unthinkable! Unheard of!Mr. Anonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-86233937272130350672012-12-10T02:52:06.136-08:002012-12-10T02:52:06.136-08:00Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington
...<a href="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6204/6096943662_749096fee7_b.jpg" rel="nofollow"> Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington</a><br /><br />Or you could just live near big libraries and use them. It's like living near large pieces of public land. Don't need to buy and pay taxes on the land.<br /><br />Suzzallo Library looks impressive as architecture but maybe not in actual books.DYorknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-37990199364731171482012-12-09T23:55:18.502-08:002012-12-09T23:55:18.502-08:00In order to motivate yourself to start a think tan...In order to motivate yourself to start a think tank (on the cliffs at Torrey Pines) perhaps you can concentrate on what a great library it could have (and to impress donors). <br /><br />Affecting US policy and by extension, world history could be secondary.wrennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-664016128633668382012-12-09T21:48:33.628-08:002012-12-09T21:48:33.628-08:00Kindle is fine if you're the type who likes to...Kindle is fine if you're the type who likes to read Malcolm Gladwell, David Sedaris, or other popular writers, but if you've got any sort of serious specialized reading interests then there's probably tons of old books you want to read that aren't on Kindle, aren't on any of the book piracy sites, and in many cases probably aren't even in your local university library. Owning a lot of physical books is the only way to go.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-40038896179658861512012-12-09T18:22:53.824-08:002012-12-09T18:22:53.824-08:00"What have your people-influencing skills got..."What have your people-influencing skills gotten you?"<br /><br />An extra 20 digits on your blood pressure, and 5 less years on your life.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-9061042441576606892012-12-09T18:09:53.553-08:002012-12-09T18:09:53.553-08:00Baloo hit the nail on the head. This is almost ide...Baloo hit the nail on the head. This is almost identical to the "My Fair Lady" set.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-47896322873508856162012-12-09T17:48:07.508-08:002012-12-09T17:48:07.508-08:00That's a lot of fantastic looking private libr...That's a lot of fantastic looking private libraries, but I think if I ever came into some windfall of Lucas-like wealth I'd simply buy <a href="http://www.recycledbooks.com/" rel="nofollow">Recycled Books</a> and its entire inventory outright, and just live in Baja Oklahoma during the fall & winter. <br /><br />Good observation about the two libraries that almost certainly get used, as opposed to the trophy libraries. Eco and McCurtry's libraries just <i>look</i> like they reek of that rich-paper smell of books that have had their spines cracked at least once, while Lucas's looks like an automated librarian would chime "Quiet, please..." when some decibel-detection gadget picked up the sound of you talking a little too loudly or detected your tennis shoes squeaking across that fine wooden floor. Probably in a fussy C-3PO voice, to boot. <br /><br />On the other hand, a guy who just got through having to convert the crawl space above the tornado shelter in his garage into makeshift, overflow book-space probably shouldn't crack on Lucas's library too hard: he's got my modest version of same beat hands down. But that dome still doesn't do much for me.Jason Sylvesterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09668573641544606666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43258214686783447292012-12-09T17:05:54.675-08:002012-12-09T17:05:54.675-08:00I remember the distinct smell (balsam firs in late...I remember the distinct smell (balsam firs in late spring snow with early spring northern blossoming trees?) that some genius at Ballantine (Tolkien's U.S. paperback publisher, I think)made sure inhered in every paperback copy of The Lord of the Rings until the mid 80s or mid 90s. Sadly, any info on this is unfindable by me on the internet (although a similar smell was added to the first printings of a Star Trek apocalyptic triloy by D. Mack earlier this year) Also, Hemingway paperback novels used to smell of freshly cut wheat and whiskey and Wodehouse novels had a cocktail/perfume/cologne/Turkish tobacco/party/steam engine smell. potato chip lovernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-12153705488648580562012-12-09T16:45:47.662-08:002012-12-09T16:45:47.662-08:00Thing at the back of my mind while reading about M...Thing at the back of my mind while reading about Marcia Lucas was Francis Ford Coppola's seeming good fortune in his shotgun marriage to a fellow film geek from Orange County whom he'd met less than a year earlier and who (eventually) had to put up with some pretty crazy escapades over in the Philippines while dutifully watching over his young childrenAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-55288617359763101592012-12-09T16:34:45.549-08:002012-12-09T16:34:45.549-08:00I'm not familiar enough with Cowen to know his...I'm not familiar enough with Cowen to know his context there, but isn't there a pretty obvious explanation at hand for such "Bowling Alone" interior vs. exterior architecture?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-37043048039140129312012-12-09T16:31:44.219-08:002012-12-09T16:31:44.219-08:00Peter Bogdanovich is another talented director who...Peter Bogdanovich is another talented director who hasn't done a damn thing worth talking about since leaving his talented first wife to take up with a series of Hollywood hotties starting with Cybill Shepherd. His best movie The Last Picture Show was heavily influenced by his first wife, who actually grew up in a setting similar to the film.Thursdayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13002311410445623799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-37130199487557751052012-12-09T16:27:41.441-08:002012-12-09T16:27:41.441-08:00The L.A. Cathedral across the freeway from the Jap...The L.A. Cathedral across the freeway from the Japanese Robot high school is actually nice on the inside.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-49326372188747831432012-12-09T16:26:02.624-08:002012-12-09T16:26:02.624-08:00Tyler Cowen has made the point that while exterior...Tyler Cowen has made the point that while exteriors of new buildings tend to be pretty shitty, interiors are getting a lot better. Modernism (and post-modernism) on the outside, classic styles on the inside.Thursdayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13002311410445623799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-86059255083862103612012-12-09T16:11:30.463-08:002012-12-09T16:11:30.463-08:00I once had dinner at the house of some historians ...I once had dinner at the house of some historians in Seville. One floor there was dedicated to their vast library--in the movable compact stacks that one otherwise finds in the bowels of university libraries. I thought that was really cool.slumber_jnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-84841956129406227782012-12-09T15:56:38.480-08:002012-12-09T15:56:38.480-08:00TV writer Tom Fontana actually lives in a former b...TV writer Tom Fontana actually lives in a former beaux-arts NYPL building. I think the Times does a feature on this whenever's there's a slow news weekAlcalde Jaime Miguel Curleohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11801154986193443160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-69203629122131033782012-12-09T15:11:23.979-08:002012-12-09T15:11:23.979-08:00"I bought my copy used during 1975 from the S...<i>"I bought my copy used during 1975 from the Strand Book Store in lower Manhattan--does the Strand still exist as it had during the 60s and 70s."</i><br /><br />There actually used to be 2 Strand bookstores in Lower Manhattan - one in Greenwich Village, a few blocks south of Union Square, and another on Fulton St., on the way to South Street Seaport. Unfortunately this second Strand closed several years ago. The Greenwich Village Strand was open the last time I visited, which was a few months ago. <br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com