happyI felt like him today as I wandered through Steptoe's 2nd Hand Store. I was wandering around, vaguely wondering what would be worth buying, when I stopped at a book case full of crap books like Dick And Jane. My eyes fell on three books in one corner. They were old. One was pre-WW2 old, and judging by the leather spines on the other two I guessed they were pre-1900s.
I opened the cover of the oldest looking one.
Needless to say, I bought them.
It's BRILLIANT! The bloke writes about using Mr Leewanhoek's new invention to look at the animalcules in stagnent pond water, Of Vulanof: "That there are fcarecely any Countries that are much annoyed with earthquakes, that do not have one of thefe Fiery Vents, And thefe are conftantly all in flames." and that light "it has the instataneous swiftness of almost two hundred thousand miles in one second of time, being much swifter than sound or the bullet from a large gun."
The second book is about diesel engines and was written in 1928. It's packed with the theory of the operation and has many line diagrams.
The third book is about the geogpraphy of Scotland, and was written in 1790. it has this wonderful hand-coloured map in the front.
All in all, I think it was $10 well spent.
