Books by their covers

Nothing against using tablets of technology for reading. Though I'm so not in that loop I can't even remember the generic (or brand) name for it!

I love the feel and smell of old books, the detail and texture of the bindings.
The one on the far left is a favourite : an "Anthology of Essays" circa 1917 from authors spanning several centuries from Caxton to Shakespeare, Hazlitt, Coleridge Pope and many more and contains such gems as:

"The Art of Political Lying"

"How a Gallant should behave himself in a Play-house"

"A dissertation on a roast pig"

"Of painting the face"

and ..."The feeling of Immortality in Youth"
this is a short extract from the footnotes :

"Lady Wortley Montagu says, in one of her letters that "she would much rather be a rich effendi, with all his ignorance, than Sir Isaac Newton, with all his knowledge" - This was not perhaps an impolitic choice, as she had a better chance of becoming one than the other, there being many rich effendis to one Sir Isaac Newton"

It made me laugh and after thinking that Lady W M must be pretty dim I decided to search on line to find out more.

In fact, if Wikipedia is correct she played a significant role in treatment of smallpox.
Not so dim, eh?

Some of these are dry as a bone - but it fascinates me learning about the social mores of different times and see how much (or little) progress we've made. And the use of language is often hilarious (not always intentionally so)

I love the randomness of flicking open a page and seeing where it leads...a luxury that's too often overlooked (by me)
An absorbing rainy day.

Now must get some work done....