Summer Bounty!

The summer has been good to the Library - with lots of new acquisitions being added to the shelves.

New to the Italo Calvino Personal Library:
 VARIETY, Second Series by Paul Valéry

New to the Robert Smithson Personal Library:
The Day of the Dinosaur by L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Cook de Camp
Albrecht Durer Complete Woodcuts, edited by Dr. Willi Kurth
The Diary of Anais Nin, edited by Gunther Stuhlmann
Madness & Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason by Michel Foucault
The Light of Common Day by Diana Cooper
Mapping by David Greenhood

Also included in this Smithson batch is, probably, the best title for a book that I have ever encountered:
the Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America by Daniel J. Boorstin

And one of the most beautifully printed & designed volumes:

The Succession of Life Through Geological Time by Kenneth P. Oakley and Helen M. Muir-Wood.  This amazing book includes countless illustrations and the stand-alone poster, The Geological Column (both seen below.)  All of this is priced at "Five Shillings."

Lastly, is the incredible Follett Beginning Science Book The Moon by the venerable Isaac Asimov.

Please contact the Personal Libraries Library at personallibraries{at}gmail{dot}com for questions about membership or checking out books.

February 2011 Reading Room & New Acquisitions

The February Reading Room Hours bring to an end the era of the small-bookcase for the Library. I am diligently sanding, staining & finishing the bookshelves for the Library to grow into. Look for the new shelves & Library room next month!

In addition to another successful Reading Room, the Library continues to grow in members and books.


The newest acquisitions include:

The Cyclical Night: Irony in James Joyce & Jorge Luis Borges by L. A. Murillo (Smithson Collection)
The Varieties of Religious Experiences by William James (Borges Collection)
Monsieur Teste by Paul Valery (Calvino Collection)

Also, are two more books to add to the Flaubert contingent!:


The amazing covers of Flaubert's The Temptation of St. Anthony and Victor Brombert's The Novels of Flaubert, from the Borges & Smithson Collections, respectively.


And lastly is Snapshots, by Alain Robbe-Grillet, from Smithson's Personal Library. The Library's edition has this amazing sheet taped in the back, showing Haslam's Bookstore's acquisition of the book on February 25, 1975. The Personal Libraries Library has now accessioned the same book almost exactly 36 years later! A beautiful parallel & paratext.

Please contact the Library at personallibraries{at}gmail{dot}com with queries about the books or membership. Also, please browse the Catalogues to see other books in the Library.