in the gloaming ~

[lookingland]

i'm sorry if i am not responding to your journals or answering emails ~ i've just been overwhelmed and very busy. life will get back to something like normal soon.

i tried doing the lj interest meme but my interests were so boring that i couldn't get through it. maybe i could pick the more obscure of my interests and list them instead. everything else just seemed lame and self-explanatory: writing: i write, hope: is a good thing, reading: i read, victor hugo: makes for good reading, etc.

if you see interests among mine that give you pause and are dying to know what the lulu they are doing there, feel free to beep my nose for explanations, justifications, nervous shuffling of feet and shifting of eyebrows, and evasive silly answers.

or something.

must go clean house now. house messy. house severely messy. house drowning in mess.

zooks, i'm tired.

: o p

Comments

[psalm23.livejournal.com]

'Tis okay, miss! XD *hopes your life will return to normal soon, too*

Yes! You could do the obscure stuff! *^_^* Like...umm...these!

antiquarian books

book arts

gerard manley hopkins

incunabula

~

*won't put in "nanowrimo", doesn't wanna take all the interesting questions away from everyone...hopes she hasn't already* *^^*;;

~ Laura.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

ha ~ !

i think antiquarian books, book arts, and incunabula all fall under the same category for me: i have a passion for books ~ not just reading or language or words/stories/etc., but for books in and of themselves. a well-crafted book is a joy to hold, the pages are a pleasure to turn. i love the care which went into books of old, the stamped leather bindings, the careful hand-stiched folios, the tinted plates. and i love all the modern variations on book-making: pop-ups, varied sizes and shapes, die-cuts, and more. old books astonish and delight me to no end, though: from hand-scribed medieval manuscripts to 19th century encylopedias, there's just nothing quite like holding a piece of history and wondering about its life's journey: where has it been? whose eyes fell upon it as mine do now? anyway, i could go on and on.

gerard manley hopkins, sj ~ that's a tricker one. i don't really relate to much poetry. i find the majority of it somehow "dishonest" or egomaniacal. hopkins as a poet, however, fascinates me because of his creative use of words and the curious synchopation of his schemes. in essence, he writes like i think, which is a trick and a half! and i don't mean in terms of themes (don't i wish i kept my thoughts so elevated). i just mean in terms of structure and how one encounters the world. there's something slightly off-kilter in his perspective struggling to stand upright, but incapable of doing so for being blown about by the winds of pathos (not sure that's an accurate statement, but i'll leave it be and think on it).

: D

[psalm23.livejournal.com]

Aiee, I love well-made books, too...books with a lovely smell to them (tell me you know what I mean :P *dies*), gorgeous, mouth-watering colours...yes, MOUTH-WATERING. *laughs* :B; And old books rock! XD Do you own any? I think the oldest book I own is this second grader textbook I got which is from the 1920's. Very nice thing indeed. *^^* Ahh, pop-ups are fun! X3 And all the sizes and shapes of books, so cool. XD And you've wondered about that, too? That makes me think about this dictionary I came across from the 1870's, it was a pocket one, and I kept wondering what sort of person must have used it. Was it a child, was it a grown up? Who knows. *_*

...*pokes you* What are die-cuts? *^^*

And about Mister Gerard there, I'll have to give his poetry a whirl sometime. *^^* But sometimes, even though I like poetry, it bugs me too, because there are some poets that write in such a way that you (or, well, me :P) don't know what they're talking about. Which is why I tend to stay far FAR away from William Blake. I never knew "The Sick Rose" was about what it's about, until I learned in High School. *dies*

*wonders if she made any sense, was probably babbling, runs away!*

~ Laura.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

oooh, yes, i know what you mean by the smell of books ~ nothing is more enticing! and i do have a lot of really really old books (though none older than 1830ish). among my favorities are a book on mythology by Hawthorne (circa 1840) with lovely marbled end pages and woodcut illustrations, and a set of 1918 medical encyclopaedias. Most of my old books are sort of trashy (i tend to rescue cast-offs), but i do have have a handful of really lovely tomes.

and die-cuts are books where the pages are cut by the press (pop-ups, in fact, are all die-cut). you most often see die-cuts on covers where there is a little window and you can look inside to a picture on a following cover page.

as for father hopkins (not merely mister, mind you, he being a priest an' all) ~ if you found blake inscrutable and infuriating, you'll detest hopkins likewise. his language is rather dense and complex. he definitely lives in his own little world in many ways. but as with all things, give him a whirl. you may never know what will "click" with you. most people peg me as a lover of hemingway ~ i can't stand the man's books. so who really knows?

: D