NavList:

I had to laugh at George's post. Being the inveterate bibliophile and with
an ever expanding collection of books, my wife is also on my case on a
regular basis, to start culling the massive herd of books that are
multiplying around the house. We don't live in a mansion; in fact our place
is pretty modest in size, but there are bookshelves in every room and every
one of them is filled to the bursting. My wife gets cross when I start to
place books horizontally on the vertical stacks. She claims the whole thing
is bad "feng shui", which is apparently all the rage these days. Just to
tweak her nose, I keep playing the ignoramus and referring to it as "kung
fu".

Now I just acquire books quietly and slip them into the shelves when she's
not looking. So far, so good...

Robert


----- Original Message -----
From: "George Huxtable" <george@huxtable.u-net.com>
To: <NavList@fer3.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 3:54 PM
Subject: [NavList 1281] Re: What's on your bookshelf?


>
> dw wrote-
> |
> | I must respectfully disagree.  I have found Cugle's very
> interesting.
> | It does not give derivations or much theory, but it does have worked
> | examples and "rules" for a great many navigation calculations, some
> | common, some esoteric.
> |
> | And since, as below from abebooks, it can be had for a total of only
> $9
> | (in the US) why not give it a chance?
> |
> | dw
> | (I'd buy a copy for George just to hear his opinion.  Address?)
>
> ===========================
>
> Well, that is a kind thought, but I must decline that generous offer,
> with regret. Let me explain the problem-
>
> I am having to be awfully selective about what books I acquire. The
> problem is shelf-space, or, ultimately, wall-space. The problem is
> this: we live in a none-too-large bungalow, and the walls are rapidly
> being covered with bookshelves. My wife complains, from time to time,
> as our living-space between the books shrinks further, that it's like
> living in a public library or a secondhand bookshop. I counter, that
> she is responsible for acquiring almost as many books as I am. Between
> us, we have a wide range of interests, and we both have a weakness for
> acquiring secondhand books, and a terrible reluctance to get rid of
> any. Recently my favourite maritime bookseller retired from the trade,
> and offered his stock at half-price; so several purchases, in an
> instant, cancelled out much of the latest shelving I had put up.
>
> So far, my wife has managed to insist that our own bedroom is kept
> free from shelving, though the guest-room now has not an inch of
> wall-space left.
>
> As well as navigation and astronomy and maritime history and
> instruments, which you might expect, there's a lot of stuff on
> archaeology, on gardening and botany, on steam technology, small-boat
> cruising, whaling, exploration (particularly Arctic and Pacific, a
> special interest of my wife). Perhaps 3,000 books or so; I've never
> got round to counting up. Not much fiction, however. No books are
> collected with an eye to appreciating value, just for reference and
> reading, when we get time to do it.
>
> So, to those of you that enjoy acquiring books, let our example be a
> Dreadful Warning to you. Unless you live in a mansion, with space for
> a real library, resist the temptation. If you can.
>
> Yours, George.
>
> contact George Huxtable at george@huxtable.u-net.com
> or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
> or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
>
>
>
> >


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