There's more than books!

We have just added thirty-eight classic (depending on your age) VHS videos and one season of the West Wing Wing to the Amazon storefront.

Star Trek and Clint are the volume leaders, but my favorite transition film is there too. Can you guess what that is?

Hint: It made the American military a hero again, finally.

Send your guess along as a comment before you peek.

Back in the Basement

Wow. It has been a while, hasn't it?

Fifteen months have passed since I was last here. The big bookcase is gone, and that's good news! It found a new home in Canada where it is now keeping medical books safe. Only fifteen more to be emptied, give or take a couple.

The mid-term elections are over and my schedule has changed, some other all-consuming projects are settled in, and I am returning to the basement, to the books, to the videos and the other items that you will learn about.

I sent out 64 invitations to some of my Facebook friends, real people who know me well or share my interest in music, or a broad general knowledge received from reading books. Real books. The kind you can hold in your hands.

Let me know what you think about all this. Really! I want to know.

In the mean time, look up!

Back in the Basement

Wow. It has been a while, hasn't it?

Fifteen months have passed since I was last here. The big bookcase is gone, and that's good news! It found a new home in Canada where it is now keeping medical books safe. Only fifteen more to be emptied, give or take a couple.

The mid-term elections are over and my schedule has changed, some other all-consuming projects are settled in, and I am returning to the basement, to the books, to the videos and the other items that you will learn about.

I sent out 64 invitations to some of my Facebook friends, real people who know me well or share my interest in music, or a broad general knowledge received from reading books. Real books. The kind you can hold in your hands.

Let me know what you think about all this. Really! I want to know.

In the mean time, look up!

The Light in the Forest - Conrad Richter

I can only guess about how this book might have made it into my library, but how glad I am that it did. The inscription on the front fly leaf is that of the mother of a schoolmate of my mother, and my mother was over thirty years-old when this book was published. That raises the additional question of why would a grandmother have purchased and inscribed a children's book? Maybe she just liked the the story.

The time has come, however, for it to find a new, nourishing home with a fan, or a young boy, approaching third grade.


Conrad Richter's historical novel about a young boy kidnapped in an eighteenth century Indian raid, raised as an Indian family member and rudely returned to his birth family explores loyalties and conflicts, particularly those imposed by one culture that breeds hatred of another. The story is timeless and crosses into our twenty-first century culture wars very well.

This volume is the Third Printing of the First Edition of 1953. Although the binding is strong and the ages clean of marks (save for the inscription noted above) the careless insertion of a Birthday Card damaged pages 125 through 128 disrupting, but not obscuring) one sentence. There is minor shelf wear on the dust jacket.


All images are of the actual book. (Actually they are scans!)

My sons are all over twenty-one now. It is time for a new generation of young people with a yearning for learning to share True Son's experiences.



You can acquire this book for $10.95, including USPS Media Mail shipping, or for $15.95 including USPS Priority Mail shipping.

Payment will be through Pay Pal. After receiving your email confirming your interest int he purchase, I will send you a Pay Pal invoice via email. When the payment is completed, Pay Pal will notify both of us and I will ship with two days.

The Essays of George Eliot - Nathan Shepard

My library contains books from a lot of different sources. Some of the primary sources, after Amazon.com and Greetings & Readings, are collections inherited from my mother, a lover of reading and books not adverse to buying a title more than one time because she liked it, and an inheritance from my maternal grandmother whose second husband's family were counted among the founders of Fenwick's Colony, better known as New Jersey.

You might think this book came from the latter, but the bookplate indicates it came from the former. In her adult years, my mother scoured the stacks at college book sales and similar locations, looking for treasures. Based on the evidence of this book, she did that in her younger years, too.

Published in 1883 by Funk & Wagnalls, New York, according to the copyright page, "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883. by, FUNK & WAGNALLS, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.C.", alas, I find no listing for this volume in the Library of Congress database. But then again, I have the book!

Bound in cloth over boards, The cover contains gilt words with red patterning on a green background. There is wear at the top and bottom of the spine, but the stitched binding is still strong and holding all of the pages. The inside front flyleaf bears the inscription, "January 4, 1902", and a book plate with my mother's maiden name.

The 288 pages are browned with age, but unmarked and undamaged. They contain an analysis of George Eliot's motives and the text of a complete collections of her essays.

The photographs accompany this post are scans of the actual book.

The time having come to begin cleaning out the library, I offer this book for sale to you for the bargain price, including shipping and insurance, of $225.00.

I will package the book carefully and gently in paper and bubble wrap before placing it in the box for USPS Priority Mail shipment to you.

Payment will be by Pay Pal, the safest way to buy online.

Send me an email stating that you agree to purchase the book. I will send you a Pay Pal invoice via email that will permit you to click through to Pay Pal and make a secure payment. Pay Pal will notify you and me when the transaction is completed and I will ship within two days providing you with email notice and online shipment tracking information.

Hooker Renaissance Bookcase Hutch & Credenza

This is a magnificent piece of furniture, the perfect place to display books, art, sculpture or anything that is important to you.

The base, or credenza, has three cabinets with shelves, a perfect place for keeping things out of sight.

The bookcase hutch has three sections. Each section has a top light, concealed by the casework. There is a wood-framed, top, glass shelf and two wood shelves for four surfaces per section.

The finish is elegant distressed cherry.

Purchased in 2001 for my office as the CEO of a small non-profit company, it sat behind my desk, dominating the room at seven feet tall by six feet wide and eighteen inches deep. Alas, the company closed and my house is too small for this beautiful piece of fine furniture.

Hutch - 73 1/2 X 16 X 55 Hooker model # 052-70-167

Base - 71 3/4 X 16 X 28 Hooker model # 052-70-165

Each piece weighs about 250 lbs.