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 Member: ellenandjimCollectionsYour library (9,873) Reviews33 reviews Tagswomen (478), anthology (396), austen (377), anthony trollope (279), film (162), gothic (161), colonna (151), shakespeare (116), literary reference (107), arthuriana (93) — see all tags Cloudstag cloud, author cloud, tag mirror About meTogether we've been buying books for 44 years -- and the collection goes back further as it includes Ellen's college books and books she took from her parents' house. We've built our lives out of our shared worlds of books. "Our books, dear Book Browser, are a comfort, a presence, a diary of our lives. What more can we say?" (Carol Shields, _Swann_). About my libraryEllen is a literary historian-scholar, writer, and retired college teacher, and has created for herself a working library. She loves and buys art books too. Ellen has written and published a book about her experiences in cyberspace reading Anthony Trollope with other people: _Trollope on the Net_. (The reader will find many books on Trollope in the catalogue and online essays on cyberspace linked into her homepage.) Jim is a mathematician turned computer scientist who is also now retired. He loves music and we have many music books; the science, math, philosophy and more historical sections of our library were bought by him. We both love and buy poetry, books of letters, memoirs, biography, and travel books. "La bibliothèque devient une aventure" (Umberto Eco quoted by Chantal Thomas, _Souffrir_). Groups18th Century British Literature, BBC Radio 3 Listeners, Biographies, Memoirs and Autobiographies, For the Love of Wilde!, I Love Jane Austen, MyPeopleConnection Book Clubs, Romance Languages, Travel and Exploration literature, Virago Modern Classics Homepagehttp://www.jimandellen.org/ellen/emhome.htm Favorite authorsNot set Account typepublic, lifetime URLs
http://www.librarything.com/profile/ellenandjim (profile) Member sinceSep 11, 2005 Most recent activity |
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Thank you for the most recent response dealing with the future of independent bookstores. We are constantly wondering what the next 20 years will look like as researchers adjust to digital databases. The private book collection may be a novelty, but still desirable--I think-by most academics. One must always contend with slow digital connections and/or loss of data, which can be backed up with hardbacks. I'm not too worried access to tangible books will diminish.
As a digression, I had my students read some history on Joan of Arc. When I asked them about the big question of how personal convictions can influence the course of history, one male student said that Joan helped to preserve French culture, and thus females were good for something. Many female students chuckled at this remark.
posted by donbuch1 at 12:03 am (EST) on Feb 20, 2013
Thank you for sharing your bookstore experience. Today I almost gave the second-hand book shop owner a donation since I felt so terrible that I couldn't find anything I wanted to buy. I heard that Barnes and Noble is planning to close 500 stores nationwide, which means that even the big chain stores are feeling the pinch of depleting revenue. Yet what remains is a public still hungry for books, whether from second-hand bookstores or online purchasing. I've been viewing the YouTube videos of "Shakespeare and Company," a Paris shop owned now by Sylvia Whitman, the daughter of the former owner. I had no idea that Paris had so many places to buy books! Anyway, it seems the French are all bibliomaniacs.
posted by donbuch1 at 12:33 am (EST) on Feb 10, 2013
Hi,
Thanks for the swift response. I'm reminded of the character May Newland in "Age of Innocence," a rather dull, passive wife who follows the conventional Victorian rules and eventually lives out her life not knowing what true individual identity means. Too many women--and men--do not realize where to begin to mold a life of happiness for themselves, as they rely upon others excessively to create their life of contentment. I scratch my head not knowing how to respond to others similar to the young female in question.
posted by donbuch1 at 2:28 pm (EST) on Dec 15, 2012
As you can guess correctly, very few read Shakespeare's corpus cover to cover. As scholars and teachers, we cross paths with the Bard more often, but I'm comfortable knowing that I've read his more popular plays and sonnets. It's interesting that you mention Voltaire as the figure often assigned misquotes. Mortimer Adler, the editor of the Great Books of the Western World, did not think this Frenchman to be worthy enough for inclusion in the Britannica series canon. Well, as a satirist, Voltaire was a genius nonetheless.
posted by donbuch1 at 2:22 pm (EST) on Aug 11, 2012
Thanks for the bibliography of 18th century dramatists. I enjoyed reading Congreve's Way of the World in a survey class when in college, but need to go back to refresh my memory. Curiously, why do you think so many misquotes were attributed to Shakespeare over the centuries, such as the "No hell a fury like a woman scorned" from The Morning Bride or even Franklin's "Time is money?" Was he just the starling who all assumed originated profundity in the literary world?
posted by donbuch1 at 9:56 pm (EST) on Aug 8, 2012
Thank you for your swift reply on Shakespeare's career history. I agree that the Bard broke new literary ground and easily gained the spotlight after Marlowe's death. Your interest in 18th-century Shakespearean scholarship launches me to read Samuel Johnson's Prefaces again. However, I'm not that knowledgeable of 18th English dramatists, although I've heard of Charles Farley. Who else is worth reading in this pre-Romantic period?
posted by donbuch1 at 10:36 pm (EST) on Aug 6, 2012
posted by susanbooks at 9:24 pm (EST) on Jun 25, 2012
Best wishes
Philip
posted by PhilipPoulenc at 5:39 pm (EST) on Jan 10, 2011
I was surfing the web looking for information on Eveline Hasler's novel Anna Göldin - Letzte Hexe. I ran across "Ellen and Jim Have a Blog, Too." I am guessing you are that Ellen and Jim. If so, I wanted to tell you I really enjoyed reading your summary of the "The 18th century on film" session at the 2009 ASECS conference. I also took a look at Ellen's website on Clarissa. It was excellent.
Cheers,
Mary
posted by urania1 at 10:22 am (EST) on Aug 18, 2009
Yes you did! Hope you and Jim are well.
I have to mention that I just watched 'Lost In Austen' last
evening and it was sheer delight - and very well done!
A bit of literary fluff but we all need that from time to time.
Have you seen it?
Cate
posted by bleuroses at 12:04 pm (EST) on Apr 23, 2009
Just a wave hello and to compliment you on your excellent blog! I
can spend hours reading through it and my TBR stack grows and grows!
I also see we share quite a few books. I've added your librar(ies)y to my
favourites and look forward to perusing the shelves!
Oh, and hello to Jim too!!
Kind regards,
Cate
posted by bleuroses at 4:07 pm (EST) on Mar 2, 2009
She added _Barchester Towers_ to one of her categories, but wonders if it's okay to start there since it's not the first book in the series. Is there anything to be lost or gained by starting there instead of with _The Warden_ (the only Trollope I've read so far, which means I'm useless to answer that for her).
Thanks, Renee
posted by ReneeMarie at 3:57 pm (EST) on Dec 19, 2008
Finally I've logged my Trollope books onto librarything.com. They are mostly in Maine where we go in the summer (this year til November 1st!). I bogged down with cataloging books last fall so have about half of what I own done in MA but I've made a start on Maine (maybe about a tenth). It is fun to remember what I have read and to marvel over all the books I own that I mean to read. Right now, I'm re-reading War and Peace, in large part because one of my students from a long time ago wrote Soldier's Heart: Teaching Humanities at West Point (Elizabeth Samet) which got a full page, rave review from Robert Pinsky in the NYTimes Book Review last fall. At any rate, she writes about Grant's memoirs and War and Peace so i decided that even though I have shelves of books from the here and now to read, i would go back to Tolstoy in the new edition.
How are you and Jim?
I think of you whenever I see my Trollope books.
Tyler
posted by flashflood42 at 10:33 pm (EST) on Jun 23, 2008
I just entered the "Critical Companion to Jane Austen" to my library and noticed that you too not only have it, but are an Austen lover. The recent Public Television series
"The Complete Jane Austen" made me want to know more about "Adaptations" from Austen.
You not only have more books by and about Austen but are also more knowledgeable than I am. I would be most grateful if you could let me know if there were any film adaptations of Austen (especially "Pride & Prejudice") before the 1940 MGM version.
I also love Trollope. Though I live in the "center" of NY City and actively partake of
all it has to offer, I still find that there is nothing better than occaisionaly stay
home and re-read Austen or Trollpe!
My best,Louis Lappal
posted by lappal at 5:19 pm (EST) on May 12, 2008
It doesn't surprise me that we share at least a few books, since some I heard about via your Yahoo!Group EighteenthCenturyWorlds. Delphine, for example, I only ordered and purchsed because I was planning to participate in the group read for it. The best laid plans gang aft agley, though, and as I mentioned in my profile I'm in 3 face-to-face book groups and a writing group. Sometimes I very much feel like I'm spinning plates.
Thanks also for participating in LibraryThing and further enabling my little addiction.
Your book-codependent LibraryThing friend,
ReneeMarie
posted by ReneeMarie at 12:21 am (EST) on Mar 31, 2008
Years ago at a conference I was spending time with John Buxton Hilton, the British writer of mysteries. The talk got around to favourite writers and Hilton said his very most favourite was Anthony Trollop. I was determined to persue a study of AT, bought a book or two and then was distracted until now. I have ordered your book. Perhaps the others will show up as I catalog and classify away. Another of the wonderous benefits of LT.
BTW, I have not been successful at listing my Favourite Authors. What is the secret?
Ahhaa, THE PALLISERS has emerged, purchased 23 Feb 1983, unread until now.
posted by WOLFARTH at 5:09 pm (EST) on Jul 26, 2007
posted by almigwin at 9:28 pm (EST) on Mar 15, 2007
posted by bjbookman at 6:28 pm (EST) on Dec 13, 2006
"It's not true to say that only bad books make the bestseller list. But it is a little bit true, and it is always the case that bad books greatly outnumber good ones at the top end of the charts. Sometimes, too, you come across an example of pure negative correlation between the quality of a book and the level of its sales."
posted by ellenandjim at 9:23 am (EST) on Oct 16, 2006
Jim loves music, and although our collection cannot match yours, it's inspiriting to see another music lover on Library Thing.
Unfortunately, he did not tag the books he has music, and since the search engine works erratically or not at all, his two long rows of music books (and piles on the piano and on a table in the front room, including many scores) are sometimes hard to find even when you put the composer's name in the search engine.
E.
posted by ellenandjim at 8:19 am (EST) on Apr 17, 2006
Jim and I have done. "Five months to the day." He started September 11, 2005, and we finished February 11, 2006.
He did say as a qualification that we are not really done as it's "Of course as additional books come in we'll add them." We may hope it'll be never quite done. It has been a long journey through past time and (for me who write this) many projects and cherished experiences. We have bought a few new bookcases and rearranged and our library somewhat, re-alphabetized and put things in order once again.
Our goal was to know how many books we had, to reacquaint ourselves with many of them, to rearrange, and to use the Library Thing software to find books when we want to. The Search engine for this central purpose needs improvement. As to all the extra numbers and software Tim provides I have found intelligible or meaningful only the statistics about in what years the books we have were published ("fun statistics") and the citations of how many books appeared in this or that library.
I should say one of the delights of Library Thing has been the socializing that has occurred. I've renewed a couple of old friendships, enabled my daughter to renew one (through someone who found our library in cyberspace and who has some of the same books and now knows she has bought the same car my older daughter did -- a Saturn SC1), and met new friends who have joined me on lists or respond to our blog or here.
Elinor
posted by ellenandjim at 6:16 pm (EST) on Mar 7, 2006
Libraries no more resemble one another than our minds do one another's.
Chava
posted by ellenandjim at 3:45 pm (EST) on Nov 25, 2005
I'm an Austenite. I was commissioned to write a book to be called _JA and Bath_. I discovered what was wanted was a coffee table book. I also don't have the money or time (the same thing Ben said) to live in Bath which would be required to write a really solid book to replace the others, which are superficial mostly.
So I put the two chapters I did on the Net. I did publish an essay-review on a much praised book on Bath. My review was published in an 18th century periodical.
So the Bath books are an extension of the Austen library.
For the stuff I wrote:
http://www.jimandellen.org/austen/BathVisit.html
http://www.jimandellen.org/austen/BiographyImpossible.html
http://www.jimandellen.org/Reviewers.Corner.Borsay.html
Chava (aka Mrs Sophia Crofts and Miss Elinor Dashwood, two of my favorite characters in Austen's novels)
posted by ellenandjim at 1:56 pm (EST) on Oct 23, 2005