Researcher's Treasures!

No-one here will think me weird when I confess that two of my favourite research books are the complete Welsh Medieval Poems, and the Laws of Hywel Dda.
I live in a town with 36 secondhand bookshops - it's kind of against my religion to buy a new book - but these two were new, and worth every penny.

One of the best books I came across at the library lately was Christopher Booker's huge tome on the Seven Basic Plots. Some wonderful insights there, and it clarified in my mind just why I hate Thomas Hardy, who got more depressing with each book he wrote.

I adore charity shops' bookshelves. There's a really good Oxfam books-only charity shop up Victoria Road, which is fairly near to me, so I quite often treat myself by going up there. Someone recently donated their entire history collection by the looks of things, so I snatched up as much as I could get. One of my best finds was 'A History of Medieval Europe' by RCH Davies going for 50p in a charity shop in Glenrothes. That one turned out to be one of the main recommended texts on both the Legal History course and the History one I'm doing. I like really old lawbooks as well, because they're great for comparing the changes in legislation and such.

PastMidnight - I don't know what part of Scotland you're in, but if you're ever in Glasgow, there is a charity book shop up on Byres Road that I go to a lot. Being so close to the university, it has a really good stock of textbooks on obscure subjects.

From the other side of the pond - as a poor college professor back in the 1920's, my Dad made many trips to the used bookstores in Ohio. I've inherited his treasures which include about 20 volumes of the Reports of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society from back in the 1800's and Henry Howe's Collections of Ohio. I've added to that a few finds of my own including a History of Columbus, Ohio written in 1870, The Archaeological History of Ohio by Fowke published about 1900, and a real treasure - The Religions of the World from about 1850 plus a few more that escape me.

An oddball I have, that I'm really thrilled to have, is a biography of Rasputin written about 1930.

We don't have many good used bookstores anymore - you actually have to search to find them even with five universities in the Columbus area and several more within twenty miles. Unfortunate. Puma

Puma said:

From the other side of the pond - as a poor college professor back in the 1920's, my Dad made many trips to the used bookstores in Ohio. I've inherited his treasures which include about 20 volumes of the Reports of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society from back in the 1800's and Henry Howe's Collections of Ohio. I've added to that a few finds of my own including a History of Columbus, Ohio written in 1870, The Archaeological History of Ohio by Fowke published about 1900, and a real treasure - The Religions of the World from about 1850 plus a few more that escape me.

An oddball I have, that I'm really thrilled to have, is a biography of Rasputin written about 1930.

We don't have many good used bookstores anymore - you actually have to search to find them even with five universities in the Columbus area and several more within twenty miles. Unfortunate. Puma

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I'm incredibly jealous, that sounds really fantastic. I adore old books and I love finding them unexpectedly in the second hand shops.

The only used bookshop we had in this part of Glasgow (besides the charity shops) just closed, which is really annoying. They were great for finding strange factual books for about £1 each most of the time. I got this great book on the history of nighttime from them. Sounds really odd but it's all about folk traditions to do with darkness and how those shaped society, law etc. I even think I have a topic for my research essay from it. I'm going to miss that shop.

Hi Jess - Your night time book sounds fascinating. Sounds like there would be a lot of good color material for novels in it. Now I'm jealous. Puma

I don't currently write in this time and place, but I have over a dozen diaries from 1880s-1920s that we picked up at an auction in Massachusetts. An incredible resource for daily life in turn-of-the-century New England. Daily chores, weather, activities. Three or four document non-consecutive years for one woman, before and after she got married. Several are men's farm journals. One is written by a schoolboy who goes away to boarding school, so I get a glimpse of his life there in 1908.

The most compelling belonged to a dairy farmer in 1927, who talks about what a struggle it's been to get his business going, and how he feels he's almost there. Toward the end of the summer, entries stop completely for months, not picking up again until a massive flood hits the area that he absolutely has to describe. But now, there's something wrong with him--he is frustrated about not being able to do certain tasks, and mentions frequent visits to a doctor. The light doesn't dawn until he finally writes that if his stump is finally healed well enough, he's going to get an artificial arm in two months. I'm dying to find out how he lost his arm and how it all turned out for him, but unlike many of the other diarists, I haven't been able to identify him.

Having...

and holding the actual coins my characters would use.

Being part of a dig on a Civil war site and uncovering clay pipes, a spur and lots of bullets. Seeing the camp sites.

The costume books by P and C Willet Cunnington, Dorothy Hartley's books about crafts and trades in Britain and Elizabeth David's books about bread and ice houses.

With those to hand I could write anything!

I'm doing research on the history of pop music throughout the 20th century. One guy has written a three volume, 1200 page treatise going back to 1600 or so and retailing for hundreds of dollars. I was able to find on the Internet a condensed one volume version of the book dealing only with the 20th century put together by his son, going for about 35 cents. So I snapped it up.

By the way, I had thought the Yale University Library was going to be a place I did some of my research. But they charge you something like $250 to become a member. Or some outrageous fee just to use the place for a day.

pdr said:

and holding the actual coins my characters would use.

Being part of a dig on a Civil war site and uncovering clay pipes, a spur and lots of bullets. Seeing the camp sites.

The costume books by P and C Willet Cunnington, Dorothy Hartley's books about crafts and trades in Britain and Elizabeth David's books about bread and ice houses.

With those to hand I could write anything!

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A sci-fi fantasy set in the Bronze Age??!!

Have you tried some of the Charing Cross Road shops in London? I know that's a bit far but some of them might have websites, or at the very least you could call them? I can't think of any around here.

For anyone interested in WW2, and not just the combat, but how it affected the regular person, this site is a must.

www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar

This is one I've found really good in terms of finding names for characters, both for historical and fantasy books;

http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/

PastMidnight said:

I've gotten books from alibris before and I've talked about finding treasures in the charity shops. Any other recommendations of places to find rare or out-of-print books? I've been looking for a particularly rare book that I've only seen come up for sale at alibris twice in the past couple of years.

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Here are some thoughts:

--eBay

--Google the title along with a word like sale or shipping to pull up vendors who don't list with Alibris

--Check with your local public library to see if they can get it on Interlibrary Loan (it might help to check Find in a Library first, so you can show them a list of who owns it)

--Ditto if you have access to a university library, or know someone who does. If it's of interest to researchers, some university library has it. They don't always loan to public libraries, but they might to another university

--Also, if you can get access to a university library, there are databases of digitized books such as Eighteenth Century Collections Online, or others specialized by topic. If it's an old book or otherwise valuable to researchers, it could be available

--If it's old enough to be in public domain, keep checking Project Gutenberg and Google Books to see if someone has digitized it. Years ago, I spent $75 on a book I couldn't find anywhere, a Victorian children's book my sister and I had as a child. For years, I'd check online to see if I could get a second copy for myself (I gave the other to my sister), and never saw it for sale. Checked again today, and the full text is on Google Books

--Book dealers who specialize in finding rare and out-of-print books. That's how I found said Victorian kids' book above, from a dealer who advertised in the New York Times.

If you want to share the title or topic, I might be able to think of more.

PastMidnight said:

Thanks for the ideas, Marlys! It's not for my own research, actually, but a book that my husband covets and wants to own. Alfred L. Yarbus, Eye Movements and Vision, a cognitive psychology text.

I have it on a watch list at alibris, regularly check ebay, periodically run Google searches, and scour every secondhand bookshop that I visit. There is a copy on abebooks right now for close to $300, which is probably what it is worth, but is still more than I can spend. The two times I've seen the book pop up on alibris, it was going for considerably less than that.

I'm sure my husband has access to the book, but he just wants to own a copy. He would even be willing to take it in the original Russian, a language that he doesn't speak a word of!

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Gotcha. One of those books that you're more likely to find in a library (it is at several universities around here) than for sale. The copy that's in the Amazon Marketplace now is an ex-library book, so it's worth remembering to check library sales, too. Otherwise, I can't think of anywhere new to look--but if something comes to mind, I'll let you know.

Many book dealers in rare etc. books...

can be found at www.abe.ca Most of the bookshops who use this online system are offering first editions and hard to get text books. You can access all their stock from abe by clicking on their names. They can be expensive but I did manage to get a Thomas Tusser for less than $50.

There is also an American libraries website where they sell off, quite cheaply, their discards. I think that one is in the Historical references.

And girlyswot, A sci-fi fantasy set in the Bronze Age??!!

Not until I can write as superbly as Patricia McKillip or CJ Cherryh.

I dunno...

BUT I think it's these people:

http://www.betterworldbooks.com/AboutUs/
but they have changed their website and everything.

Otherwise 'I've bloody gone and lorst it!'

In case you haven't got this one
http://www.biblio.com/

pdr said that Dorothy Hartley wrote a book about crafts and trades - I must look out for that! Her book on Food in England is just wonderful, and the recipes are tasty, too!
I have her book on medieval costume, too, which is not so useful for me as a historical re-enactor, but it was written in 1931, when there were no such things as re-enactors (the Physician looks about 12 years old!)

Dorothy Hartley...

wrote several books which are about skills and crafts. Go for the British published ones not the ones re-done for the American market as they are more comprehensive. For America her books were shortened and combined, a chunk from this one and a chunk from that one sort of thing. Very annoying when you've read the originals.

'Water in England' is a fascinating insight into water. We don't appreciate it when we turn on a tap, but she traces human settlement and English history through it.

The craft books, I can't remember their titles. So sorry. www.abe.ca has lots of expensive 1st editions if you look. But her Thomas Tusser with his original verses and her comments all around is a must if you are thinking of understanding farming and the year for pre-industrial peoples.

Just had to share this - I was out at Kelvingrove today with my dad, looking for a birthday present for Mum's 60th, and to kill a bit of time we ended up in the Glasgow Museum of Transport - haven't been there since I was little but I found it a really good place to get atmosphere and inspiration. They have an exhibition on at the moment about travel in Scotland in the late 1800s / early 1900s, with authentic clothes and such on display. I was really pleasantly surprised.