Books of win
Mar. 13th, 2010 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwendolyngreyIt's not a great secret that the library is one of my favorite places on the planet, and the only thing better than inter-library loan is a library book sale.
My mother and I got up early this morning to hit the local library book sale as soon as it opened. As normal, there was long line of people queuing outside the door, and at 9:30 on the dot everyone poured into the one small-ish room filled with messily stacked tables of books. It was a madhouse inside... people with armfuls and bagfuls of books shoving and pushing their way through the crowd and nudging along the sections they were interested in.
It felt like a battle where the person with the best finds in the least amount of time and who trampled the most toes in the process somehow won.
My mother and I nearly came to blows over an AMAZING book of popular 19th century songs... reprints of the original sheet music. She picked it up first though, so technically it's hers. I, however, am the one who likes/needs it the most. ;) It has nearly every popular Civil War song you can think of with lyrics and different vocal parts and piano accompaniment. After getting home, I immediately sat down at the piano and starting playing through some songs. So far, the most fun song to play is definitely When Johnny Comes Marching Home which has a great introduction/interlude. It would be loads more fun as a group activity though... standing around the piano singing together. So very Victorian!
I also picked up Walnut Pickles and Watermelon Cake- A Century of Michigan Cooking which has a lot of great recipes mostly from 1880-1920. It even has a recipe for croquettes which I had been very curious about ever since reading Jane of Lantern Hill long ago. And, like a dork, I'm quite thrilled at the idea of having a cookbook of the sorts of things that Anne would have made (I imagine that Michigan cooking would be very similar to Canadian cooking).
And while we're on the subject of books, I recently checked out The American Frugal Housewife, originally published in 1833. It's full of fascinating tidbits and helpful hints for practical cookery and housekeeping and health. Lots of advice on getting stains out of different types of fabric, cleaning various metals, getting rid of insects, preserving food, etc. Some of the advice sounds hugely useful, although some sounds equally horrifying.
I'd like to make raspberry shrub this summer though, and I do want to try this:
"Glass vessels in cylindrical form, may be cut in two, by tying around them a worsted thread, thoroughly wet with spirits of turpentine, and then setting fire to the thread."
My mother and I got up early this morning to hit the local library book sale as soon as it opened. As normal, there was long line of people queuing outside the door, and at 9:30 on the dot everyone poured into the one small-ish room filled with messily stacked tables of books. It was a madhouse inside... people with armfuls and bagfuls of books shoving and pushing their way through the crowd and nudging along the sections they were interested in.
It felt like a battle where the person with the best finds in the least amount of time and who trampled the most toes in the process somehow won.
My mother and I nearly came to blows over an AMAZING book of popular 19th century songs... reprints of the original sheet music. She picked it up first though, so technically it's hers. I, however, am the one who likes/needs it the most. ;) It has nearly every popular Civil War song you can think of with lyrics and different vocal parts and piano accompaniment. After getting home, I immediately sat down at the piano and starting playing through some songs. So far, the most fun song to play is definitely When Johnny Comes Marching Home which has a great introduction/interlude. It would be loads more fun as a group activity though... standing around the piano singing together. So very Victorian!
I also picked up Walnut Pickles and Watermelon Cake- A Century of Michigan Cooking which has a lot of great recipes mostly from 1880-1920. It even has a recipe for croquettes which I had been very curious about ever since reading Jane of Lantern Hill long ago. And, like a dork, I'm quite thrilled at the idea of having a cookbook of the sorts of things that Anne would have made (I imagine that Michigan cooking would be very similar to Canadian cooking).
And while we're on the subject of books, I recently checked out The American Frugal Housewife, originally published in 1833. It's full of fascinating tidbits and helpful hints for practical cookery and housekeeping and health. Lots of advice on getting stains out of different types of fabric, cleaning various metals, getting rid of insects, preserving food, etc. Some of the advice sounds hugely useful, although some sounds equally horrifying.
I'd like to make raspberry shrub this summer though, and I do want to try this:
"Glass vessels in cylindrical form, may be cut in two, by tying around them a worsted thread, thoroughly wet with spirits of turpentine, and then setting fire to the thread."
