Membrendrose

My books and those of my wife C are catalogued here. Our kids also have a few thousand books, but I have not attempted to record them, because they get lost, scattered, destroyed (when the kids were very young a few were even eaten), and will presumably be taken off to new homes eventually. Any survivors that I decide to keep may in due course appear here.

I built the beginning of my library in junior high school when I discovered that if I bought my lunch I could skimp on food and buy books with the surplus. The shop I passed on my way home--anybody remember The Circular Word in Buffalo, NY?--sold used paperbacks for half their cover price. I started accumulating old Folger Shakespeares and Signet Classic novels with cover prices of 35 or 45 cents. At half of that, you could make lunch money go a long way; and I still have some of those books.

τέττιξ μὲν τέττιγι φίλος, μύρμακι δὲ μύρμαξ,
ἴρηκες δ᾽ ἴρηξιν, ἐμὶν δέ τε μοῖσα καὶ ᾠδά.
τᾶς μοι πᾶς εἴη πλεῖος δόμος. οὔτε γὰρ ὕπνος
οὔτ᾽ ἔαρ ἐξαπίνας γλυκερώτερον, οὔτε μελίσσαις
ἄνθεα: τόσσον ἐμὶν Μοῖσαι φίλαι. οὓς μὲν ὁρεῦντι
γαθεῦσαι, τοὺς δ᾽ οὔτι ποτῷ δαλήσατο Κίρκη.