I don’t know if you remember, but a couple weeks ago, my Colette anthology bit the dust. Staring at the pile of dismembered pages was making me feel guilty, so I whipped out my X-acto and gluestick and ruler, dyed a few favorite pages, and made a new book out of them. I think it turned out pretty well, which is why I’m posting the entire thing. Behold!
As you can see from the bottom photo, I made two copies of this book. This is one more than I need for my personal library, so I would like to give the extra one away.
So, if you have ever had a book perish on you, and you would like to have the other Eulogy in remembrance, leave a comment with all the tragic details. (I was thinking that the person with the most heart-wrenching story would win, but really, how can I judge between “Madam Bovary” dropped in a bathtub, or “Archie & Jughead Digest” lost on a bus? Both make me equally sad.) Drawing on Sunday! Tell your friends!
January 29, 2008 at 12:33 pm |
Well a long time ago I’m a big fan of Reader’s digest, so when I came across a nice true story about a father and son I commented on it… lo and behold they posted my message on the next issue. It made me so proud that by following year after, when I met up with my dad (which by the way is separated from my mom) he was sooo excited that he asked to borrow it and showed it to his friends (which was kinda lame
) and the rest of his family. It made me a star for a while that he was really proud of me for a change. But the following month he became engaged with his work and he travelled a lot and I also went to college in another city. So we lost communication and the little book was also lost together with him.
I like that Issue so much for the reason that it was the first and probably the only book I saw my name printed and was spread internationally.
January 29, 2008 at 2:07 pm |
My more tragic stories are about books disappearing never to be found again vs. books meeting a bitter, unfortunate end. However, I can tell the story about the time I decided to no longer loan books to people until I got to know them so well that I knew whether or not they were fanatical about keeping books nice or not. I had purchased a new hardback copy of the William Shatner Memoir, Star Trek Memories. Instead of being wonderful vignettes about a show I grew up loving it was a tell-all that made me sick. By the very end of the book I had decided that enough was enough and I was going to take the book back and get my money back. A girl that I was working with asked to borrow the book. I should have known better, but I was kind and let her borrow it. Weeks and weeks went by without the book being returned. One day it showed up in my mailbox, looking like a book-eating sasquatch had gotten ahold of it. Turns out it was her cat. Rather than telling me about what happened and apologizing and offering to pay (which I would have gentlemanly refused to accept), she said nothing. Nothing at all. For years she didn’t say anything and then one day out of the blue told me the tale of her book munching cat and how bad she felt. Needless to say I feel even more bitter about that damn book that I would have had I been able to take the travesty back and get my money back. That book should have been called Shattered Memories as that is what it did! (OR, for pun’s sake, Shatnered Memories, ha!).
January 29, 2008 at 5:27 pm |
Hurricane Katrina ate nearly all of my books…’nuff said :p Seriously though, it was almost the most tragic part of the whole hurricane for me to come home and see my bookshelves covered in mold! Luckily though, it was material possessions lost with my family and not lives, so they can be replaced…some of them…But I would LOVE to be entered in your drawing…I love your book!
January 30, 2008 at 2:07 am |
Your book looks wonderful! I’m not going to be greedy and enter the drawing though, seeing as how I just received a book from you …
January 30, 2008 at 3:50 am |
I love your book! How wonderful that you want to give one copy away. I’m always losing books, leaving them someplace where they don’t belong, which makes it fun when you find them after several months. The worse book loss, though, was when the water line to ice maker had a pin-sized leak, leaking down the inner wall, into a closet in a room with floor to ceiling bookcases. It only takes 3 days for mold to take hold – 3 days we weren’t around to realize there was a problem. As horrible as it was to have to gut 1/2 my house and dispose of all the furnishings, nothing was as painful as throwing away a library with > 1000 books. All to the dump! From time to time I go to find a book that I know I’ve owned, only to be disappointed to recall that it was a book that was pitched.
January 30, 2008 at 8:24 am |
CanadaBoy’s corgi, Ollie ate my copy of A Beautiful Mind one Tuesday afternoon. I had just bought it on Sunday. I knew things were not well when I opened his apartment door that fateful summer evening and it looked like the aftereffects of a snowstorm. Ollie hung his head, but his bright and gleeful brown eyes betrayed his appetite for biography.
I loved your eulogy! There is actually a eulogy for Ollie’s snack on bookcrossing.com
January 30, 2008 at 1:58 pm |
Ella, your creativity and brilliance amazes me! I am still in mourning for my copy of Watership Down my best friend dropped in the bath when we were 13.
January 30, 2008 at 5:25 pm |
What a great eulogy! LOL My most tragic story is a book I leant to my sister (who is ten times for fanatical than me about keeping books crisp and clean) presented me with a gift certificate in place of said book. I naturally asked why and she produced the tattered remains. Her new puppy discovered the joys of said book all for himself. It was really funny because she thought I would be angry and not believe her (which was why she actually brought the tattered remains). Living in a small apartment she now tranfers her small bookcase into her bathroom and closes the door whenever she leaves the dog alone.
February 2, 2008 at 3:47 am |
Your book is absolutely gorgeous, Ella!
I had this book once — actually I had it about 4 or 5 times — I could never find it when I wanted it, which was occasionally (and rather inexplicable that I ever wanted it at all, but its one of few books I reread bits of), because someone would borrow it and not return it, and I’d drive myself crazy trying to figure out exactly who and when and then go buy another copy. It was Shibumi by Trevanian, and the kind of book which is not exactly a great book, but a decent thriller with excellent detail regarding spelunking in Basque country and the game of Go, and the sort of book people would pick up and say, “This looks interesting; can I borrow it?” The last time I had a copy, my boss asked to borrow it, and later he told me he left it in a hotel room in Mexico. I’ve since stopped replacing it, maybe because this time I know what happened to it, and it’s not a bad fate for a book really.
February 4, 2008 at 6:00 am |
[...] It’s called Eulogy for a Book and it’s a little handmade book by the author of the blog Box of Books. It’s so incredible and I got an email today from her telling me that I won it! Please [...]