A Catalogue of Tiny Books

 

Aerial view of tiny book collection 

   Teresa was dusting in the library the other day when one of the shelves collapsed. It was the shelf that held our collection of miniature books, so it was surprising that such a light load would collapse. As she put the books back on the shelf, she suggested I write a post about this collection.

   I used to be a bibliomaniac. I couldnt go past a bookstore without going in and buying something. I read more catalogues of remaindered books than I read the books themselves. Second-hand bookstores were my skid row. 

   I didn't collect miniature books on purpose. They were too hard to read.  But as they came in my way, I found a home for them as I would for a stray puppy. I just pulled the collection off the shelf to take a survey. The largest book is Familiar Fossils, followed by The Tale of Benjamin Bunny. I'm not familiar with many fossils but I'm very familiar with Benjamin Bunny.

   There's Mark Twain: Wit and Wisecracks: "Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with."

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: "A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,/ A Jug of Wine, A Loaf of Bread--and Thou/ Beside me singing in the Wilderness--/ Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow"

The Tempest, by Shakespeare: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

There's A Little Book of Dreams: Dreams of being back in school taking a test you haven't studied for and will surely fail could mean you feel you're being tested in your waking life. Or it could mean something else.

I have three Audubon Bird Books, two of which are the same. The first person who contacts me can have one of them.

There's a book of love poems in Norwegian. There are three Little Blue Books: Two contain the shorter speeches of Washington and Lincoln and the third is The Battle of Waterloo by Victor Hugo. There are Irish Myths, Irish Blessings, and the Book of Revelation: "Write therefore what you have seen: both what is now and what will take place later."

   The books are now back in their place. I'm glad the shelf collapsed. Maybe it was the books trying to get my attention. "Look at us -- We can tell all that you need to know."

Done and dusted