Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Today

The company I work for has recently gone through a period of expansion. This always makes me nervous. I've worked for other businesses that have grown too quickly and they invariably end up being taken over by bastards who use words like upskill and robust. I hope it will be different this time.

One result of this sudden expansion is that I now around 30,000 books to deal with, so you can expect to see a lot more bookmarks and other ephemera. In the meantime, these are what caught my eye today:

There are times when an author photo isn't a good idea. The blurb beneath says that "W. H. Rowe comes from Cornish stock..." as if that explains everything.

This postcard fell out of a book on planes. The back reads "The plane was a Jumbo and stopped at Zurich and Nairobi. I didn't bother getting off. The plane went over the jungle - I didn't see Tavyan, but here are some Zulus."

A cheery note with a simple message: you only have yourself to blame. I'd have torn it up.

This colour illustration comes from the slightly misnamed Jolly Book, published around 100 years ago. Like most children's annuals of the time, it is bizarre mixture of crass sentimentality, casual racism and religious indoctrination. Interestingly, the annuals published after 1918 are far more restrained.

Finally, my new favourite book title:

This title conjures up a variety of wonderful images. It's an interesting concept, but I think I'll stick to packets for the time being.

5 comments:

JRSM said...

That kneeling child's hair is drawn in such a way as to give her a touch of the tentacled C'thulhus. Wicked indeed.

Thomas Hogglestock said...

Is Gay Gardens for sale? Seriously, can I buy it?

onmyporch (at) hotmail (dot) com

Steerforth said...

Yes, I hadn't thought of the tentacled one, but you're right.

Thomas, I'm afraid that the book has been sent off to be recycled, but I'll look out for another copy.

The Poet Laura-eate said...

Gay Gardens From Seed is a classic!

Or at least deserves to be. I can imagine you don't get many of those to the pink pound.

Author photo hilarious. Poor chap.

Caroline said...

That picture of Mr Rowe nearly made me spray coffee all over the screen. Now I remember why it's best never to see what a writer looks like.