unexpected discovery

[jwgh]

While I was backstage at the Noxagt show tonight, I found a collection of old Time/Life books which I remember reading and rereading quite a bit when I was a kid:



Did anyone else have these? The 'Mathematics' one and the 'Universe' one I particularly remember being fascinated by.

I was tempted to read them again but decided it would be rude.

Comments

[katrinkles.livejournal.com]

I have "the sea" and "machines" which i bought at a yard sale a few years ago because i like the pictures. i have to admit that i mostly use them when i need a hard surface to lean on and i've never read either of them cover to cover.

[jwgh]

Yeah, I think they're pretty much made for browsing.

[cpr94.livejournal.com]

For a book entitled "The Universe", that's awfully small.

I note that "Mathematics" is considerably bigger.

[jwgh]

Well, duh. It's a bigger subject.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

'Matter' was the one that fascinated me, with 'The Body' a strong runner-up. I tried to get excited about 'Energy' but it never took.

[mskala.livejournal.com]

I've got a Time-Life book called The Universe, but I don't know for sure that it's that one. Mine is volume 4 in the "Young Readers Nature Library".

What about the Ladybird books, which were of this general nature but pocket-sized and British? And, for that matter, what about the Usborne technical books for young readers? I've got one here that's called Machine Code For Beginners. That's not assembly language for beginners, it's machine code, for ages 12 and up. They don't write like that anymore, and we're poorer for it.

Ohhh wow, dude, I'm having a flashback.

[majorzed.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid we had - I think - the complete set. Something like 20 of them? Mathematics was cool, especially the section on topology. Also liked the Universe. Also probably did not read any of them cover-to-cover. They had great bite-size sidebars, easily digested.

[palmitas268.livejournal.com]

I'm having a flashback too! We totally had these when I was a kid. I mostly just remember looking at the pictures, and I loved the smell of them.

[djswifty.livejournal.com]

You went to go see Noaxgt? Like, up here? !!! How the hell was it? I would have gone if I hadn't had an extended band practice and then got stuck on the pike in FLOOD WEATHER.

[jwgh]

Yeah, Noaxgt played an illegal warehouse show with three other bands in Providence and I! was! there! It was pretty neat.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I've got eight or so of them, including The Universe and Mathematics. For a while there near any roaming used-book-store on the campus where I used to be employed would include a bundle of these books, and I'd have to decide how many of them I really wanted to add to my pile. I haven't read any from cover to cover, but they do make fascinating skimming, particularly in things like The Planets or Men In Space where things are so hopelessly out of date that they become intriguing all over again.