Book hauling

If you know me at all, you know how much I love books. Part of my sabbatical has, unexpectedly, been an education in how other people express their love of books through social media. That brought me to booktubing, which brought me to book hauls, which is my subject today.

A book haul, as the name suggests, is a booktuber's brief show-and-tell about all the books she has read and acquired in a given period — the month of January, for example. With all the books I receive for reviewing, buy for my studies and pleasure reading, rescue from various book stores, and borrow from various libraries — not to mention receive as gifts — I should be the queen of book hauls.

But I am never going to make a YouTube video about books, reading, or book hauls. Unless I could do it in costume. Say "Gorilla Professor Reads Books," a YouTube series hosted by an eccentric academic in a gorilla costume. Meh, it's probably already been done.

Anyway...

Here is a low-key book haul. No YouTube, no giddy spoken narration, no video editing, and only two of the amazing books I read or received in February. But with photographs!

1. The History of the Book in 100 Books

The title is fairly self-explanatory. Published in 2014, this book surveys various eras and themes in book history and print culture through individual titles. The treatments are brief but well annotated, and the text is supported by full-colour photography throughout. I'm thinking about it as a supplementary text for print culture in the future.

2. Treasures of the Library of Congress

I purchased this gently used book through ABEbooks for $7.27 US, plus $3.49 shipping — a steal! What this photo doesn't show is how gigantic this book actually is — or how heavy. Printed in 1986 (there was an earlier printing), this book is a photographic catalogue of some of the most impressive and most important objects housed in the US Library of Congress: documents, photographs, maps, artwork, and books. SO MANY BEAUTIFUL BOOKS!

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So. Perhaps blogged book hauls could be a thing for me. Of course, there is the problem of storing books on the boat ... and of getting them back to Edmonton ... and of finding shelf space ...