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Books, books, books
23/9/07 19:58I am almost done filling my bk1 basket with books--a mix of light novels and manga, because I have Duke for serious literature and nonfiction, and I'm going up to New York in December, but there are some things Kinokuniya just doesn't have.
Ideally I would just need one more manga somewhere on the axis of weird/artsy/surreal... suggestions, anyone?
I have to say, reading up on the Taishou period is a lot easier than reading up on ancient Japan -- mostly because there are a lot of pictures from the period that survive. There are trains and toys and advertising posters and iceboxes and hand washing machines... and at any rate, I may have found the 'life in Japan at particular periods of time' (as distinct from the political/military stuff that I only really want the basic outlines of) series that are going to be useful to me in the future. Second-language research is hard. But it's killing two birds with one stone, and besides, Duke's still rearranging their English-language collections.
Oh, oh, I can't believe I forgot to mention:
On Saturday I went over to Duke, and saw that they had moved their English-language Japanese-history books again. So I went down to the lower level where they were supposed to be...and came upon something I had not seen before.
Normally, a library is laid out like this:
-----------------------------------------------------
AISLE
-----------------------------------------------------
AISLE
-----------------------------------------------------
AISLE
This section of the library, however, was laid out like this:
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
AISLE
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
One shelf was literally right up against the other with not more than half an inch of clearance between them--meaning most of the books were completely inaccessible. Now, the library has been under construction for well over a year, and sometimes the books are just inaccessible, but this particular section didn't seem to be under construction.
Then I noticed that the shelves had buttons on them, which said 'move.'
I pushed a button. Instantly I thought, "I just did a dumb thing, didn't I?" as the shelves began to slide along the floor... freeing up an aisle right where I needed it. This is both
(1) the coolest library toy I have ever seen
(2) terrifying. I'm sure that a person can't actually get crushed between the shelves as they slide together. Right? Right? Right?
I wonder how the librarians feel about it. There was a sign that said 'if the shelves are stuck, please ask for help,' so I have to wonder if it's one of those eternally cursed pieces of technology that never works quite as well as it's supposed to... or whether it actually is the coolest library toy I have ever seen.
It's good to have the big endowments.
Ideally I would just need one more manga somewhere on the axis of weird/artsy/surreal... suggestions, anyone?
I have to say, reading up on the Taishou period is a lot easier than reading up on ancient Japan -- mostly because there are a lot of pictures from the period that survive. There are trains and toys and advertising posters and iceboxes and hand washing machines... and at any rate, I may have found the 'life in Japan at particular periods of time' (as distinct from the political/military stuff that I only really want the basic outlines of) series that are going to be useful to me in the future. Second-language research is hard. But it's killing two birds with one stone, and besides, Duke's still rearranging their English-language collections.
Oh, oh, I can't believe I forgot to mention:
On Saturday I went over to Duke, and saw that they had moved their English-language Japanese-history books again. So I went down to the lower level where they were supposed to be...and came upon something I had not seen before.
Normally, a library is laid out like this:
-----------------------------------------------------
AISLE
-----------------------------------------------------
AISLE
-----------------------------------------------------
AISLE
This section of the library, however, was laid out like this:
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
AISLE
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
One shelf was literally right up against the other with not more than half an inch of clearance between them--meaning most of the books were completely inaccessible. Now, the library has been under construction for well over a year, and sometimes the books are just inaccessible, but this particular section didn't seem to be under construction.
Then I noticed that the shelves had buttons on them, which said 'move.'
I pushed a button. Instantly I thought, "I just did a dumb thing, didn't I?" as the shelves began to slide along the floor... freeing up an aisle right where I needed it. This is both
(1) the coolest library toy I have ever seen
(2) terrifying. I'm sure that a person can't actually get crushed between the shelves as they slide together. Right? Right? Right?
I wonder how the librarians feel about it. There was a sign that said 'if the shelves are stuck, please ask for help,' so I have to wonder if it's one of those eternally cursed pieces of technology that never works quite as well as it's supposed to... or whether it actually is the coolest library toy I have ever seen.
It's good to have the big endowments.