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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2014 3:07:33 GMT
I love books, I love buying books, and most of the books I buy these days are treasures I find in thrift shops and second-hand sellers. I know people on this board read and I thought perhaps we could share our latest treasures in this thread. To start off: The Cooking of Germany - one of the many estimable Time-Life Books in the Foods of the World Series. I love these books, they came out it in the late 60s - 70s and they were meant to introduce North Americans to exotic cuisine, while showing a lot of local colour and travelogue. I have a few of these (Classical French Cooking was the first cookbook I owned) and I look at them often. These days, they're more historical documents; traditional food and eating habits were changing, and these books document the last of uniquely regional foods. The thing I love about this book (published 1969) are the photos of Germany as I knew it when I was a little kid. The cover:  Roast venison!:  |
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Post by bjd on Feb 16, 2014 7:05:33 GMT
I have a Time-Life Italian cookbbook -- I found it in a second-hand bookstore years ago. I still use the recipe for lasagne/cannelloni.
I confess that I try not to buy any more big books. My shelves are full.
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Post by lagatta on Feb 16, 2014 20:07:22 GMT
I had a few books from that set, such as La cuisine des provinces de France, or whatever it is called in French. It is funny reading over the accounts of daily life, as they seem very quaint nowadays. I've given away most of them and only kept the spiral-bound recipe paperbacks.
lizzyfaire, I have some cookbooks in German, from Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The friend who sent me "Die gute Küche: Das Beste aus dem österreichischen Jahrhundertkochbuch" is dead now, sadly.
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Post by mich64 on Feb 16, 2014 20:20:46 GMT
New book - German phrasebook and dictionary.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2014 20:25:42 GMT
Vintage cookbooks go for a pretty song these days, lagatta. That Die Gute Kuche book sounds like a real find.
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Post by mossie on Feb 17, 2014 15:50:40 GMT
These two came from a charity bookshop, I am a sucker for charity bookshops and also books on the Battle of Britain. Charles Dickens I have never read and as this book was the basis for les Miserables I thought I had better have a go, the binding attracted me, it was printed in 1901.   |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2014 16:36:21 GMT
Oh, mossie, those are gorgeous finds! My father would absolutely love the Battle of Britain book, in fact, he may already have it. And the Dickens - what a find! Those turn of the century cloth bound books with the gold lettering are classic. I know a bookstore that has a whole bookcase of them, but they never seem to sell much. I envy you your Dickens.
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Post by htmb on Feb 17, 2014 16:36:52 GMT
Mossie, though it tried and tried, I could not even begin to read A Tale of Two Cities. My new book is one I've decided to reclaim. One of my weaknesses has always been books. I loved visiting my grandparents and great grandparents homes because there were wonderful collections of books and, being the oldest and most studious of the grandchildren, I was given permission to read any books of my choosing. Since Christmas I have had four boxes of old books, those left from my grandparents and my mother, sitting in the back of my car ready to take to the library for one of their fundraisers, but I haven't seemed to find the time to go. I know it's because I really don't wish to part with the somewhat dusty, moldy old dears. About four weeks ago I pulled out one book and decided to keep it because of its inscription. The book is titled Adventures of a Brownie. The only name that might be an author's is "Mullock." There is no date of publication. Inside, there is a wonderful inscription to my maternal grandmother. The book was a Christmas gift to her from her grandfather and great aunt in 1903.   |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2014 16:39:04 GMT
And Mich, I collect dictionary and phrasebooks. My favourite is the Urdu, which I've never had occasion to use, but you never know. As smartphones become more ubiquitous, phrasebooks may disappear entirely in the future.
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Post by mich64 on Feb 17, 2014 17:08:06 GMT
Yes Lizzy, that is probably why they were on the sale table. My mother-in-law speaks German so I hope to go over it with her for the next 6 months to give us a comfort level on the proper pronunciations.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2014 17:22:48 GMT
Oh, htmb, I am green with envy over your Brownie book. And how wonderful to have the inscription. That is truly a beautiful book. Does is contain all sorts of Brownie tips? (Full disclosure: I was a Kelpie).
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Post by htmb on Feb 17, 2014 17:26:49 GMT
Thank you, Lizzy. I hope you don't mind my posting my "new" old book in this thread.
The book is actually little short stories for children. "Brownies" in this sense are the same as elves or male fairies.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2014 17:32:28 GMT
Oh, that is even more charming. And I don't see any problem with the "old" book. From what I can see, not a single one of the finds on this thread are "new".
People sure had beautiful handwriting, didn't they?
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Post by htmb on Feb 17, 2014 17:34:31 GMT
I've added another photo that includes a fairie sitting on a cat.
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Post by bjd on Feb 17, 2014 19:27:59 GMT
htmb, aren't there booksellers who would buy those books from you? Surely some of them are collector's items? It's a shame to give them to the library where few people would probably read them.
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Post by htmb on Feb 17, 2014 19:33:13 GMT
I am sure some are collector's items, bjd, but there's not much of a market here. Our library has a support organization that collects and resells books quarterly as a fundraiser. Each sale takes place over several days and attracts huge crowds. So, the books don't go on the library shelves, but are instead sold to readers as well as collectors who, I assume, travel to our town when there's a sale. I suppose I could investigate further, but I honestly do not have the time.
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Post by lagatta on Feb 18, 2014 0:24:57 GMT
The fairie sitting on the very complicit looking cat is wonderful. Yes, at first I thought of Brownies as the junior Girl Guides.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2014 15:57:10 GMT
I picked this up at Powell's Books in Portland:  But this is my prize from the community bookshelf on Whidbey. I'm sending it to my Dad. All about a British explorer in the Amazon who was apparently "eaten by cannibals" while on a search for the "lost white tribe of South America". And look at that anaconda!  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2014 2:48:45 GMT
Today in rehearsal I rifled through a box of books destined for the goodwill and came up with some beauties. A definite theme... A biography of an artist I always want to know more about:  Evil women in art at the turn of the last century:  And this gem, a biography en français.  God know when I'll have time to read them. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2014 18:58:34 GMT
I keep adding cookbooks to my library. First, a throwback to my teen years when Gourmet was my monthly purchase. Then, you never know when you have to pair food and an historical era.   |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2014 19:59:04 GMT
Have you actually tried any of these ancient recipes?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2014 20:07:01 GMT
Just bought the book yesterday, so not yet. The pumpkin tortelloni look good, though, as do the artichokes in cream sauce. Not sure if I'll try the Biancomangiare, which is a pounded paste of almonds, cooked chicken breast, sugar and rosewater. What they would have known as a sweetmeat, I suppose. I used to love cooking ancient recipes at dinner parties for adventurous guests.
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Post by lola on Jul 8, 2014 13:57:11 GMT
Great photo of Cocteau.
I have my grandfather's vintage cookbooks, including Clementine in the Kitchen and One-Arm Cookery, that I keep meaning to use for actual cooking.
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Post by mossie on Jul 18, 2014 14:57:46 GMT
Books have to be stewed for a long time and thus become absolutely tasteless.
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