Book People Archive

On Books and The Housing of Them

I am delighted to announce that William Gladstone's 1898 book "On Books
and The Housing of Them" is now on-line:

    http://rtpnet.org/robroy/gladstone/onbooks.html

As background, Gladstone was Prime Minister of England four times. This
book was published in the year of his death.

The first pages of the brief 29 page book pass lightly over the history
of libraries and the looming problems of book shelving at the major
libraries of the time. He then proceeds to focus on home libraries,
right down to the spacing of the shelves and what size lumber to use and
how to organize your collection.

Readers of this list will appreciate his love for books, and dislike for
new-fangled contraptions then being installed to hide the books in
rolling book shelves. (You still see these in Doctor's offices and the
like today, each shelve is on rails and they are shoved left and right
to make a gap big enough to walk into at the proper spot.) He also
comments on the proper style binding to match the book and which books
should never share the same shelf!

I've proofed it twice, but will proof again before sending off to
Michael's Gutenberg Project, so report any typos to me as you find them.
(Thanks!)

By the way, can anyone explain the term "half-bound" book?

Charles Hall
Raleigh, NC