Nine.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 ponderous tome of chaste amusement together with moral instruction, The Quiver ran at over 1,000 pages per yearly final result together with must accept cost a pretty penny inwards its day. But together with then the purchaser would barely accept needed to secure whatever other reading material, as the publication appears to accept aimed to sustain every appear of a family’s intellectual together with spiritual needs for its natural shelf life of twelve months.

I came upon a pristine re-create of the 1899 edition at the Downtown Community Fair. I bagged it for $2. There is no marketplace position for these i time prestigious course of educational activity markers, which were printed inwards London together with shipped to every corner of the empire to bludgeon readers amongst their colonial values.

(The 1899 Quiver opens amongst a storey entitled ‘Lady Doctors inwards Heathen Lands.’)

There are no markings on my book, hence no hints of its ownership history. When did it come upwards to New Zealand? Who owned it, together with did they expire along it inwards the family? The Downtown Community Fair relies on charitable donations, so it seems probable that it was passed on past times descendants of the master copy owners. The lack of bookshop stamps or prices written inwards pencil on the frontispiece supports the theory, piece the absence of signs of mould suggests it spent the final century on a shelf within a well-ventilated home, as opposed to within an attic.

If I could tell yous precisely why I tending well-nigh these things, at that topographic point would hold upwards no require for me to expire along a blog.

It’s nine years this calendar week since I started doing this, together with at that topographic point are just about traditions surrounding my anniversary posts that I must honour. The get-go is a brief catalogue of my second-hand mass acquisitions. Of which The Quiver is one.

I am literally writing this from within a department of the astonishing dwelling work solid library of a friend who’s hosting me for a few days. I accept locomote to practise so I’m non allowing myself to browse the shelves. It’s hard. It’s likewise making the few treasures I collected over the years await pathetic. But together with then I am a faux collector, pretending to fill upwards holes inwards a library that doesn’t exist. Whatever am I going to practise amongst an 1889 re-create of the Morse commercial code know as Unicode?

The purposes of these codes was to relieve on the cost of sending telegrams past times reducing complex sentences to unmarried words. They were the URL shorteners of their day, if yous like. I opened upwards my 1889 re-create of the Unicode at random. It says that Secretio is brusque for ‘Leaving past times prepare arriving at London Bridge at –,’ piece Rigesco way ‘I empathize deeply amongst yous inwards the loss yous accept sustained.’ I sympathise, but I soundless desire to relieve on cable costs.

I merchandise inwards useless knowledge. Like this 1969 final result of Popular Mechanics that instructs readers on how to practise a small-scale tornado within their television set sets.

Or yet just about other final result of This Is New Zealand, my dearest series of promotional books used past times local businesses to impress their unusual contacts together with clients. This i is from 1979 together with is emblazoned amongst the cite of New Zealand Cements Holdings Limited, which demonstrate trades as Holcim. It volition require a hereafter postal service

Or at that topographic point are the golden-era scientific discipline fiction books I ever option up, regardless of the likelihood of my truly sitting downwardly to read them – or, inwards most cases, re-read them, since what I’m doing hither is piece of cake rebuild the library of my teenage years, which I dismantled inwards diverse stages earlier I left Italy.

But together with then at that topographic point is ever an actual treasure. This year, it’s this 1938 lead to the ‘Maori names of New Zealand prepare stations’, which is to say, to the Māori names of most places.

The lead originates from contributions made over the years past times Māori readers to the remarkable New Zealand Railways Magazine, together with was compiled past times its most prolific writer, James Cowan. Some of its cognition may accept been superseded, but as it’s a document that retains just about value due to the fourth dimension together with circumstances of its production.

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There is just about other tradition I must award at this fourth dimension of the year, together with it’s the changing of the masthead. It’s fourth dimension to bye Marian Maguire’s beautiful design

Which followed on from 2 consecutive years of Sarah Laing’s

Who was preceded past times Tim Denee.

And Dylan Horrocks.

And 3 times Shirley Carran.

All of whch originated from the flash bill of fare illustrated past times Bert Warter for Bruno Furst’s 1949 books Stop Forgetting, whence the cite of the blog.

Only to welcome a contribution past times the first-class Sharon Murdoch. Thank yous Sharon!

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I ever know where to begin, but seldom know when to end, which may work concern human relationship for the fact that this spider web log soundless exists. This twelvemonth it was a struggle, at times, to expire along going, just as it was painful to unopen the comments section, due to it existence of a precipitous overwhelmed amongst spam. (I volition nonetheless as before long as I tin restore one-time comments – including Megan Clayton’s wonderful poems – which are currently hidden but non deleted.) Then inwards the wintertime I decided to embark upon a serialised reading of Dante, which is likewise a schoolhouse memoir of sorts – because the globe needs to a greater extent than memoirs! – together with that project, indulgent as it is, has helped restore the pleasance of writing on these pages which I only couldn’t practise without.

Thank yous to those who read whatever of the posts this year. The fourth dimension yous pass hither is the other matter I couldn’t practise without.

Finally, as is likewise customary: the final twelvemonth of posts inwards clickable mosaic form. Cheers.