# Magical Book Shops, Interesting Libraries and Books



## SeaBreeze

Some book stores that book lovers may like to visit...http://www.buzzfeed.com/ailbhemalone/british-bookshops#2ie4415


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## AprilT

Made me shed a tear of longing.    I especially enjoyed the one with the mounted kindle.    That was cute.


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## oakapple

Thanks Seabreeze. Have been to quite a few of these bookshops [5]. Blackwells in Oxford centre is the best [IMO] and I was in there only last week [bought the paperback 'The Incident Of The Dog In The Night -time' by Mark Haddon.They have a nice though small coffee lounge upstairs next to the history dept, where you can have coffee and cake and start reading your new book.It's full of students [in Blackwells] buying the books for their courses.I think there are at least 4 floors, and the floors are huge.It's directly opposite the Sheldonian theatre [where the degrees are handed out in some ceremony.]Right next door to it is a very old pub called The White Horse, where we sometimes have lunch. The Bookshop with all the hats is a bit odd though, I find it pretentious, and all the ruddy hats get in the way of looking at the books!Also the staff keep a look-out and I don't enjoy the feeling of being watched in case I make off with a hat!


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## Meanderer

....found the one rather 'daunting'!


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## AprilT

Speaking of old and books and all, I just snagged an out of print copy of the history of my great grandfather's journey.  I had been looking all over to find it for the past four or so years and I couldn't believe it when I did another search on Tuesday and found that a seller had it listed on ebay.  He hadn't sold it by the sell date, I wrote him he relisted it and I just bought it today.  I'm so thrilled.  I can't wait to get my hands on the actual book.  It's part voice and written, so I believe I'll get to hear him speaking as well.  I haven't heard his voice since I was about 8 y/o.  I'm stoked.


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## SifuPhil

Wow, talk about character - those places have it in spades.

Never having been to the UK to enjoy such wonderful places I made do with the Strand on lower Broadway in NYC. Tons of new and used books, several large floors. It was my home away from home when I lived in the city.


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## SeaBreeze

AprilT said:


> Speaking of old and books and all, I just snagged an out of print copy of the history of my great grandfather's journey.  I had been looking all over to find it for the past four or so years and I couldn't believe it when I did another search on Tuesday and found that a seller had it listed on ebay.  He hadn't sold it by the sell date, I wrote him he relisted it and I just bought it today.  I'm so thrilled.  I can't wait to get my hands on the actual book.  It's part voice and written, so I believe I'll get to hear him speaking as well.  I haven't heard his voice since I was about 8 y/o.  I'm stoked.



I'd be excited too April, very cool!


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## Meanderer

AprilT said:


> Speaking of old and books and all, I just snagged an out of print copy of the history of my great grandfather's journey.  I had been looking all over to find it for the past four or so years and I couldn't believe it when I did another search on Tuesday and found that a seller had it listed on ebay.  He hadn't sold it by the sell date, I wrote him he relisted it and I just bought it today.  I'm so thrilled.  I can't wait to get my hands on the actual book.  It's part voice and written, so I believe I'll get to hear him speaking as well.  I haven't heard his voice since I was about 8 y/o.  I'm stoked.


I agree!  That is VERY Cool!


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## oakapple

That's very exciting for you April.


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## Pam

Would love to visit all of them!!


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## AprilT

SeaBreeze said:


> I'd be excited too April, very cool!





Meanderer said:


> I agree!  That is VERY Cool!





oakapple said:


> That's very exciting for you April.



:thankyou:  Did some more digging and I found a video news interview with him speaking live with Charles Kuralt.  I watched it yesterday it was really nice seeing his sweet old face.  I believe he was walking tall in it at around 92 in the interview and didn't pass away till age 103 sure wish I could ask about his diet, but I'm sure it was more his active lifestyle that kept him in such good shape.  I have so much love for that old man, partly because inspite of all the ails of my life, he passed down great lessons and strengths in ways that would take pages to explain.


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## Vivjen

I go the Bookshop in Wigtown, every time I visit Mum and Dad, and I always buy something; as does Mum!
they have a fantastic collection of 2nd hand books, as well as new ones.
i love it!

I have also found a book on the net written by my great-grandfather....it is exciting, even if I don't understand a lot!
i have a special bookshelf for books written by people I know, or signed by the author, or school prizes from Mum and Dad; I love that shelf, even if other people find it tedious!


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## AprilT

Vivjen said:


> I go the Bookshop in Wigtown, every time I visit Mum and Dad, and I always buy something; as does Mum!
> they have a fantastic collection of 2nd hand books, as well as new ones.
> i love it!
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> I have also found a book on the net written by my great-grandfather....it is exciting, even if I don't understand a lot!
> i have a special bookshelf for books written by people I know, or signed by the author, or school prizes from Mum and Dad; I love that shelf, even if other people find it tedious!



I think that's great that your family has a rich history, nothing tedious about it in my opinion, I respect other peoples stories about their families if they share them.  My great-grandfather's story evidently wasn't tedious to many, he didn't write his story, he couldn't have done so if he wanted to considering the time he was born in and wasn't afforded the opportunity, others wrote about him and his town erected a statue of him, so to them, the reigning president of his last years and several news outlets he, his life's story was not in the least bit tedious.  I'm imagine others reading this might disagree, but, I will honor his memory every chance I have an opportunity, don't care if anyone finds it tedious, they can just ignore it.


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## Vivjen

Quite right, AprilT, I love it too....and that is all that matters!


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## Meanderer

AprilT said:


> :thankyou:  Did some more digging and I found a video news interview with him speaking live with Charles Kuralt.  I watched it yesterday it was really nice seeing his sweet old face.  I believe he was walking tall in it at around 92 in the interview and didn't pass away till age 103 sure wish I could ask about his diet, but I'm sure it was more his active lifestyle that kept him in such good shape.  I have so much love for that old man, partly because inspite of all the ails of my life, he passed down great lessons and strengths in ways that would take pages to explain.



Was this interview with Charles Kuralt part of his "On The Road" Series?


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## AprilT

Yes and separate, CBS owns the rights to parts of Grands life story, they even did a TV movie staring Sidney Poitier, using the title of ggf's story about a the last brickmaker in America.

Here's the most recent story I found which had been speak of Kuralt talking of my ggf.  The show my ggf talking somewhere in the story.

http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/travel/video/11568965/ 

I had posted an album with some picks of the statute the town dedicated to him.  I did attend the dedication about a decade ago.  I had written to their local newspaper to find out when the dedication was going to take place, my question was posted in the local paper as well, to my embarrassment.  I started getting calls about, which grandchild wrote in that question.  It's a long sad story, my siblings and I were the long lost children of the family.  Believe me, I may be talking about this here, but, I wouldn't ever be this talkative in person.  When I went to the ceremony, I practically tried to hide to avoid everyone wanting to where Genny's girl was and to talk about writing in.. 

I know I said I don't care, I'm really not an attention whore, but, when you are robbed of a proper childhood and you get an opportunity to reconnect with someone so special as I did with other uncles and aunts over the years, I get a little runny on the mouth over the net anyway.  I do apologize if this comes across as thumping my chest.  It isn't.  Otherwise, I'd talk about my other grandfather that became a lawyer with the help of the Quakers that help save his life.   

I probably would shut up if I had someone near to talk about it with.  Sigh.  Have to admit, my daughter would probably yawn.  I think I will send the links to the other kids in the family though.  I know he won't be forgotten by other members, I just wish my daughter and her's could appreciate those that paved the way for them.


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## Vivjen

Don't fret about your daughter yet; this kind of stuff doesn't interest them yet; it will; in time.


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## AprilT

Thanks Viv, I just feel my days are numbered and I want to gather what info I can and hope she will want to hold on to it, but, I'll probably be better off passing it on to one of my nephews.  Sigh.


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## oakapple

Just heard on the news that an American tourist in London managed to get himself locked into a London bookshop for a few hours.He was in Waterstones, and although staff had checked [and not seen him] they put out the lights and locked up and went home.There are worse places to be for a few hours.


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## SeaBreeze

*Great American Independent Book Stores*

Here are some American book stores...http://www.buzzfeed.com/jenniferschaffer/great-american-bookstores


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## SeaBreeze

Bestselling author, James Patterson donates big to independent book stores...http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...tterson-makes-holiday-donation-to-indies.html




> Eighty-one booksellers got a special gift on Monday, just in time for the holidays. Bestselling author James Patterson sent out $473,000 in grants for the third, and final, round of his 2014 million-dollar campaign to invest in indies.In February, Patterson began distributing grants to independent bookstores with children’s sections. The program has now delivered grants to 178 stores altogether, with the donation totaling $1,008,300.
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> “It will be like Christmas come early,” said Mary Williams, general manager of Skylight Books in Los Angeles, which asked for money to spruce up its children’s section. She plans to expand the children’s section, and replace some fixtures with more kid-friendly options.
> ​​A number of stores--including Kramerbooks & Afterwords in Washington, D.C., and Sherman’s Books in Bar Harbor, Maine--requested the money to fix up their physical space.
> Younger stores, too, sought financial assistance for operations. Five-year-old Greenlight Books in Brooklyn, N.Y., will use the money to update its computer system.
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> Rona Sue London at the Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore wanted funding for a new children’s program coordinated with area schools that will allow local students to meet authors and get free books. “I’m a teacher by training,” says London, “so I know that the need is. I know a lot of kids don’t have a chance to be in a bookstore, or to own a book.”
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> Perhaps the most poignant request came from 57th Street Books in Chicago; it wanted to create a fund to reimburse the children’s manager, and other staffers, who have spent their own money buying books for poor children who visit the store. The grant will also enable the store to create an ongoing fund for children in need.
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> “Here’s to a joyful holiday season for booksellers everywhere,” said Patterson in a prepared statement. “Here’s to more parents and grandparents coming to their senses and giving their kids books—yes, books—for Christmas and other holidays. Here’s to local governments waking up to the fact that bookstores and libraries are essential to our way of life.”
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> Patterson, who recently launched the #SaveOurBooks campaign, to encourage the nation’s leaders to raise awareness about reading, plans to continue to support indie bookstores in 2015. He will also champion a new initiative centered on getting kids reading, and strengthening school libraries.


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## Josiah

This has indeed been a wonderful thread to follow and I'm delighted so many have been moved to contribute. 

SeaBreeze's' link to many quaint and beautiful English and Scottish book shops is indeed a treasure. The shops themselves are treasures filled with shelf after shelf of treasures.

Regrettably these rich repositories of our literary tradition are very much an endangered specie. In the thirty years that I've been in the antiquarian book trade I've seen certainly more than 75% of the brick and mortar stores in the states go out of business including many flagship stores comparable to those shown in SeaBreezes' link. Denver use to be a great bookstore town with half a dozen really good stores on South Broadway now mostly gone. The best shop in town was The Mad Dog and the Pilgrim. Gone.

So thanks again SeaBreeze for a remembrance of something that is passing.


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## SeaBreeze

*Majestic Photos of Libraries in Paris, Rome and Boston*

Nice majestic photos of libraries...http://www.boredpanda.com/house-of-...-libraries-around-the-world-by-franck-bohbot/


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## AprilT

Beautiful.


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## SeaBreeze

Interesting book store in Argentina, used to be a theater. http://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/12/el-ateneo-grand-splendid-beautiful.html


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## SeaBreeze

More interesting libraries here: http://www.boredpanda.com/extraordinary-libraries/


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## SeaBreeze

*Chained Libraries*

Interesting article and photos of chained libraries. http://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/04/the-last-surviving-chained-libraries.html


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## SeaBreeze

*Library in Prague*

More info and pics.  http://www.boredpanda.com/beautiful-library-prague-czech-clementinum/

The Klementinum library, a beautiful example of Baroque architecture, was first opened in 1722 as part of the Jesuit university, and houses over 20,000 books. It was voted as one of the most beautiful and majestic libraries in the world by our readers!The ceiling frescoes were painted by Jan Hiebl. In 1781, director Karel Rafael Ungar established Biblioteca Nationalis, a collection of Czech language literature. Some of the rare historical books from this collection have been sent to Google for scanning and will eventually be available on Google Books.Just as the library is a rare and little-known treasure, so is it associated with several little-known facts: the Klementinum used to be the third largest Jesuit college in the world; recording of local weather began there in 1775 and has continued ever since; it is featured in a novel by famous Spanish-language writer J


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## AprilT

Stunning, I really prefer the older styled libraries as compared to the modern ones built today, such craftsmanship of those older buildings just gorgeous.


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## SeaBreeze

Interesting library in The Netherlands, more info and pics.  http://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/12/the-book-mountain-in-spijkenisse.html


Close to the Port of Rotterdam, in Spijkenisse, is a public library that manifests itself as a mountain of books on the town’s market square. 

Shaped like a pyramid, the library contains five floors of bookshelves connected by 480 meters of staircases, pathways and indoor terraces, that spiral up to the pyramid's apex. The “mountain of books” is enclosed inside another pyramid whose barn-shaped structure reminds people of the towns agricultural past, which has grown from a farming village to self-sufficient educational and commercial center in the past 40 years. 

The Book Mountain is visible from all sides through its glass façade pyramid building which is illuminated from within serving both as an advertisement and an invitation to reading, which holds great significance for a community where only 10 percent of the population is illiterate.


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## fureverywhere

The Strand in Manhattan, not much to look at except floor to ceiling books...ah paradise.


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## SeaBreeze




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## clover

My contribution is for 2 reasons. An iconic poster and a unique book shop


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## SeaBreeze

*Coolest New Library in China*

Very modern and futuristic, more info and photos HERE.



> Book lovers, pack your bags – one of the coolest libraries in the  world has just opened up in China and it is absolutely gorgeous.
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> The Tianjin Binhai Library, also called “The Eye of Benhai” because  of its mirrored spherical centerpiece depicted above, has opened up in  the Binhai Cultural District of Tianjin earlier this month.
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> The 5-story library features a dazzling futuristic interior with  rippling shelves and layered terraces that double as steps and seats.
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> For the more practically-minded viewers who are eyeing the books that  are out of reach on the taller shelves, don’t worry – the designers  used aluminum plates instead of actual literature on the higher  terraces in order to keep up with the library’s aesthetic.


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## SeaBreeze

*Interesting Fore-Edge Paintings 'Hidden' in Books*

I never knew of any books like this, the full article, more photos and short video HERE.



> Some of the earliest examples of fore-edge paintings date back to the  10th century. These early paintings were simple decorations or heraldic  designs made in gold and other colors. Disappearing fore-edge  paintings, where the painting is not visible when the book is closed,  began to appear around the middle of the 17th century, and the paintings  also became more elaborate consisting of fully colored illustration of  landscapes, portraits and religious scenes.
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> The technique peaked in late  19th and early 20th century when artists began to paint on books  originally published in the early 19th century. The majority of  surviving fore-edge paintings date from this period.
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> _A  rather amusing painting made on the edge of “The Heavens: The Seasons”  by Robert Mudie, written in 1836 on the subject of astronomy. The  painting shows an old astronomer who is so engrossed with his telescope  that he is completely unaware that his wife and apprentice are having  sex in his own bedroom while he is distracted. Photo credit: __Melissa Kunz/University of Tulsa
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> Modern  fore-edge paintings show a lot more variation than those produced  earlier. Sometimes two different illustrations were painted on either  side of the pages, each one revealing when the page block was fanned in a  certain direction. Some fore-edge painters went a step further and  painted a third scene directly on the edge of the book that can only be  seen when the book is closed completely.
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> Others painted panoramic  fore-edge painting that wrapped around the edges of the book. Some  extremely creative pieces needs to be fanned or twisted in a special way  in order to see the painting.
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> The subject matter of the scenes  also changed from landscapes and religious to erotic and scenes from  popular novels like those by Jules Verne, Charles Dickens and Arthur  Conan Doyle. In many cases, the fore-edges were painted with scenes  depicting a subject related to the book. But there are many other cases  where it is not.
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> There are several libraries and rare book houses  around the world where you can see fore-edge paintings in person. The  Ralph H. Wark Collection at the Earl Gregg Swem Library in Virginia, the  United States of America, is home over 700 rare books with fore-edge  paintings, including several with vertical portraits and double-edge  paintings.
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> Although a dying art, fore-edge paintings are still  being created by artists such as Martin Frost and Clare Brooksbank.  Martin Frost has over 3,000 artworks to his name.


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## Big Horn

SeaBreeze said:


> I never knew of any books like this, the full article, more photos and short video HERE.



I can't believe that I've never heard of these.  There's a slew of them on eBay.


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## SeaBreeze

*The Library That Stands on Two Countries, USA and Canada*

More here.



> The Haskell Free Library and Opera House is housed in an ornate,  century-old, two-story stone building built in the Queen Anne Revival  style, typical of public libraries of the time. The library and opera  house was built by the American, Carlos Haskell, and his Canadian wife  Martha Stewart Haskell, and donated to the residents of both countries.
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> It was deliberately built over the border so that both Canadians and  Americans can have equal access to the library. The library has only one  entrance, on the American side, but Canadians are free to enter and use  the library, as long as they return to their Canadian side once they’re  done. There is, however, an emergency exit on the Canadian side of the  building, but it stays closed.
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> Inside the building a thick black  line runs across the floor of the library's reading room demarcating the  Canada–United States border.
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> Upstairs is the opera house, where the  line cuts diagonally across the seats so that the stage and half the  seats lie on the Canadian side while the rest of the seats on the US  side. Similarly, in the library below, children’s books are in the US  side, and the rest of the collection and the reading room is in Canada.  Because of this, the Haskell Library is sometimes called “the only  library in the US with no books” and “the only opera house in the US  with no stage”.


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## SeaBreeze

*Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in Connecticut, USA*

More here.  



> Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library is the  largest building in the world dedicated to the containment and  preservation of rare books, manuscripts, and documents.
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> Completed in  1963 and situated on Yale University's campus, in New Haven,  Connecticut, the library has room for approximately 780,000 volumes.  Currently, it holds about 500,000 volumes and several million  manuscripts including the original Gutenberg Bible and the mysterious Voynich manuscript, among several others.
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> Before  the construction of the library, rare and valuable books of the Library  of Yale College were placed on special shelving at the College Library,  now known as Dwight Hall.
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> Later in 1930, when the Sterling Memorial  Library was being built, the university created a dedicated reading room  for its rare books. As the collection grew, Sterling's reading room  became too small and unsuitable for preservation of the delicate  manuscripts, and the need for a larger library was felt.
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## SeaBreeze

*The Bookwheel*

16th century forerunner to the eBook reader...more here. 



> For many of us, the ebook reader was the next best thing to happen since  Gutenberg’s printing press. The printing press made books widely  available, and the ebook reader conveniently shrunk the same to such  compactness that we can carry a thousand of them around wherever we go  without discomfort. Such a concept would have been fantastic for someone  born in the 16th century, but nevertheless, the idea did cross their  minds—especially the mind of Agostino Ramelli.
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> The bookwheel was Ramelli’s attempt to solve the problem of reading  or referencing several books at once. In those times printed works were  typically large and heavy which made cross-referencing between them  nearly impossible unless you laid them out in a large table and used  your foot to consult different pages, which Ramelli remarked was very  inconvenient for those who are “indisposed and tormented by gout.”
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> The  bookwheel resembled a Ferris wheel typically found in amusement parks,  with the riders replaced by slanted reading desks. A complicated  arrangement of gears called epicyclic gearing, that had only previously  been used in astronomical clocks, ensured the lecturns  over which the books were laid open remain at the same angle no matter  the wheel's position.
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> The seated reader used either hand or foot  controls to rotate the wheels and bring the desired book into position.  According to Witold Rybczynski, gravity would have worked just as fine  in keeping the lecturns level, as it does with a Ferris wheel, but  Ramelli wanted to show-off his mathematical prowess resulting in an  unnecessarily elaborate design.
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> Ramelli deliberately made his  designs complicated in order to show the application and importance of  mathematics and geometry in the field of engineering. In the preface of  his book, Ramelli made no attempt to hide this fact. He wrote, “On the  excellence of mathematics in which is shown how necessary mathematics  are for learning all the liberal arts.”


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## Gary O'

somehow this oldie seems appropriate here;


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