jimihatt is hitting the road this summer — signing copies of the first release in his “Old School” cooking series - Old Cookery Books & Ancient Cuisine and bringing a little joy into your lives. You seriously need to hit one of these events.
We did a great event with Guerrilla Cuisine back at the Charleston Library Conference in November where we cooked up some delicacies from this medieval cookbook and compendium of food history. Including the sweetbreads (yes, those sweetbreads).
With a great foreword by Matt Bolus, one of Charleston’s finest, it is a must read. And believe me the signings are more than a boring guy at a card table.
We have been working on some pretty nice projects with the folks at College of Charleston. In September we finalized details and chose a recipient for the BiblioLife Scholarship. This four year full scholarship was constructed with Chris Starr, head of the Computer Science department. As part of our cooperation with CofC we are also developing a research lab for pattern recognition and semantic meta-data creation which will kick off sometime this year.
On the publishing side, we will release a very cool 1883 tourist guide to Charleston with the CofC library in the next couple of weeks (cover below) and an early 19th century hand-written travel journal before the end of the year.
We are excited to be working with the nice ladies at Your Backyard Farmer to bring back to life some of the important books of Urban Gardening published before 1923. Pioneered in 2006, YBF is an innovative approach to community supported agriculture through urban backyard farming. They create small sustainable organic method farms at the backdoor & provide fresh, in-season produce from the farm to your fork.
Our first release, The Backyard Farmer, originally published in 1917 by John Willard Bolte, will launch at the American Library Association conference in Denver later this month. It offers some unique perspectives and relevant wisdom to the “green” movement.
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From the introduction:
“Organic gardening is a name that is used currently to represent things that were done before the separation of conventional and organic (a mid to late 20th century phenomenon) gardening. When this book was written, there was limited access to synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. So growing organically was the only choice!”
Ahoy you scurvy dogs!- International Talk Like A Pirate Day is Friday September 19th and in honor of this most important of days, we have partnered with the founders to release a series of Classics of Pirate Literature. These 20 titles represent the best of 17th-19th century pirate books from the guys who have been making Sept. 19th more fun since 1995. Now running for 13 years - the holiday has gained international acclaim and is celebrated by “fun loving pirates” all over the world.
ITLAPD founders Mark “Cap’n Slappy” Summers and John “Ol’ Chumbucket” Baur will spend this Sept. 19th with National Geographic in Philadelphia. But before shoving off on their media tour they took the time to hand pick these Pirate favorites and added a forward to help you lucky lads and lassies to soon be talking with a bit o’ slang in your gobs.
Everyone has a story about how they got to where they are. Most just haven’t taken the time to ponder it, much less write it down.
I want to take a moment to give you a bit of insight into a Roman Catholic child’s life…
(I would love to see comments on how many of you remember these sentiments…)
Feigning sickness or death each Sunday morning- I would sit in bed and wait to either smell my mother’s perfume (you’re going to church, move it!), or bacon (get down here for breakfast, move it!), or both (why doesn’t dad have to go to church with us???). More often than not, the smell of some musty alcohol-laced floral would waft up the stairs and alert me that the next scents to greet me would be incense and old people.
On more than a few occasions, I tried to explain to my mother that times were changing, and that watching mass on the television would not only keep my attention, but we could all eat breakfast (thereby maintaining good nutrition), and spend the day together as the good Lord had intended. Apparently, the Lord worked through my mother in mysterious ways, and although I still can not imagine any loving God telling my mom to pass on the message to ‘get my damn clothes on and be quiet’; I’m sure it must have been something like ‘thou must hasten thy speed, dress in grandest robe, and silence; lest ye not hear the blessed voice of your Lord’. Or whatever.
On to mass. Let it be said that before entering the church, the ladies of the congregation begin in what equates to a combination bazaar/tribal dance/talent competition-thing. Naturally, the children lag behind the parents, desperately trying to hold on to that last shred of coolness with the equivalent of a piece of dental floss. The moms huddle. They gather. They smoke that last pre-game cigarette before ushering their broods into the lanes of ultra-uncomfortable seating.
Let’s just stop at that for a moment. What sort of a sadist came up with the pew? Seriously- is it not torment enough that the service for a Roman Catholic compares to a Richard Simmons workout? Is it not enough that one is not even allowed to wear the appropriate sweat-suit to attend? Nope. You see- Mom’s God does not want you to be comfortable. It delights this deity to see you in full on starched poly, sneezing uncontrollably from the church-scent ‘dinge’, and topped of by having your only rest for the hour and a half be a couple of pieces of plywood stuck together. These seats made those padded knee rests seem comfortable…
Anyhow- apparently G.K. Chesterton also felt the irresistible nag to ’skip out’ on church whilst penning ‘Heretics’
Given the tenor of the book, one can only assume that Chesterton is in ‘growth’ phase. We can confirm this, seeing as how his follow up book, ‘Orthodoxy’, finds Chesterton doing an about-face.
What with all that’s been made available to the masses since his time; it’s no wonder people just aren’t as compelled to spend any amount of time on religious introspection.
Today’s title is brought to you by the classic Bob Dylan song ‘Rainy Day Women, 12 & 35′…
I know that this’ll be a difficult pill to swallow (pun intended), but apparently the government believes that drugs are bad. In the event that you are not prepared to believe this, I have provided a recent government report of said topic.
Let me preface what I’m about to say with the subtle disclaimer: BOOKHOUND IS NOT CONDONING THE USE OF DRUGS.
That said, I want to engage you all in convivial discussion about the possibility (I believe, probability), that artistically, much good has come from the ‘assistance’ of various mediums.
Take for instance:
Baudelaire, Burroughs, Carrol
Clinton (whatever- he still smoked it)
Dali, Doyle, Edison, Freud, Gates (as in, William.He too, had some college days), Hoffman, Huxley
I still have quite a bit of alphabet to go- but you see the point. (here is the full list). So I present to you William James.His works in general ask much of the reader insofar as to insist that the very logic that is utilized by the majority of us, is in fact- wrong.A bold move for anyone.Certainly, this wasn’t a man who was out to placate the populous.
They say that alcohol is the truth serum, something to loosen one up, make it easier to ‘mingle’.Imagine then, the boldness that must come from copious amounts of nitrous oxide- one of many ‘tools’ that James was know to employ. For anyone who has ever questioned the nature of things- this is your book. James didn’t just want to check out the grass on the other side of the fence- he wanted to tear the thing down.
…’gone are the days when the ladies said please…’ -Brown Eyed Women (Hunter, Garcia)
Too true. Given the advent of celebrating women who behave poorly; (think Amy Winehouse, Ms. Spears, Lindsey Lohan), I give pause to think back to a time when such actions weren’t condoned, and women were symbols of virtue. Wait- did that EVER happen?
It is comical to juxtapose some great examples of the ‘multiplicity of women’…Admittedly- some of my favorite reads are those which highlight the ‘bad girls’ throughout the ages, so in tribute- here’s a link to a fabulous blog out there devoted to just that: http://scandalouswoman.blogspot.com
Etiquette, Emily Post- For the domestic goddess in all of us. A hysterical book this day in age. I suppose it could incite a good many who are unable to see the humor, and find it instead to reek of the objectification of women; but hey- times have changed.
And in honor of one of my favorite ‘against-the-grain’ girls, Ms. Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Bookhound presents the Collected Works of our not-so-fair lady.
Raised in abject poverty, Vassar educated, Pulitzer Prize winning, and able to wear the proverbial pants to a tee- Ms. Millay remains a fixture in literary circles, long after her 1950 passing. BUY THE BOOK
So either sit back with some cookies baked from scratch, or take another whiskey swill; either way these two are sure to please…
What I wanted was Steak. What I got was Tilapia. Although not as spectacularly colored next to the haricot vert (a green string bean with French attitude) that would accompany it; the price was too good to pass up. So this led me to wonder- are rising food costs changing the way we eat? I don’t remember eating Tilapia as a child, yet to be sure, it graces the plates of my family often enough to be mentioned.
In honor of our delicious (and affordable) friends- the BookHound offers you ‘How to Cook Fish‘, by Myrtle Reed. Fish- it’s what’s for dinner. And what has been for dinner since this beauty was published back in the late 19th century!
Chock full of little yummies, this’ll give you a fab retort when everyone is standing around whining, ‘what’s for dinner?’ In a snap, you can tell them that they can choose one of TWENTY FIVE different ways to have their whitefish. Seriously.
Fan of eel? Lucky- you have forty-five recipes at your disposal!
Pretty soon- you’ll forget all about that filet mignon, and head straight for your local fishmonger.
You know what they say…’Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”…give a man ‘How to Cook Fish’, and he’ll soon have a party in his mouth.
Syriana is arguably one of the best political films to be released in the past decade. As George Clooney has said: “I make Ocean’s Thirteen for the studio, they let me make Syriana - quid pro quo”. Below is a trailer of the film (for those who have not seen it, or just want to remember a little about it) and a link to the classic “Travels in Syria and Holy Land” by John Lewis Burckhardt published in 1822.
Reading the original texts describing the region during the 19th and early 20th centuries provides an additional layer of understanding and Burckhardt was an amazing explorer and traveler offering a unique cultural perspective in his work.
TRAVELS IN SYRIA AND THE HOLY LAND by John Lewis Burkhardt
After studying in Leipzig and at the University of Göttingen he visited England in the summer of 1806, carrying a letter of introduction from the naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach to Sir Joseph Banks, who, with the other members of the African Association,accepted his offer in 1809 to launch an expedition to discover the source of the River Niger. Upon acceptance Burckhardt planned to travel to the Levant in order to study Arabic, in the belief that his journey to Africa would be facilitated if he was accepted to be as a Muslim.
As preparation Burckhardt briefly studied Arabic at the University of Cambridge and prepared for his rigorous career as an explorer by wandering bareheaded in the English countryside during a heatwave, subsisting on vegetables and water, and sleeping on the bare ground.
Burckhardt left England in March 1809 for Malta, whence he proceeded, in the following autumn, to Aleppo, Syria in order to perfect his Arabic and study Islamic Law. In order to obtain a better knowledge of oriental life he disguised himself as a Muslim, and took the name of Sheikh Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah. There is some indication that his conversion to Islam may have been sincere, although his family denies this.
After two years passed in the Levant he had thoroughly mastered Arabic, and had acquired such accurate knowledge of the Qur’an, and of the commentaries upon its religion and laws, that after a critical examination the most learned Muslims entertained no doubt of his being really what he professed to be, a learned doctor of their law.
During his residence in Syria, Burckhardt visited Palmyra, Damascus, Lebanon and made a series of other exploratory trips in the region. One of these trips, in what is now modern-day Jordan, resulted in his
‘discovery’ of the extensive and unique ruins of Petra which had been undiscovered for nearly a millennium. Unsatisfied with the magnitude of this discovery he was determined to carry on with his
original aim to uncover the source of the River Niger. Thus he in 1812 went to Cairo with the intention of joining a caravan to Fezzan, in Libya.
Burckhardt temporarily abandoned this goal to travel up the Nile as far as Dar Mahass; and then, finding it impossible to penetrate westward, he made a journey through the Nubian desert in the character of a poor Syrian merchant, passing by Berber and Shendi to Suakin, on the Red Sea, whence he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca by way of Jidda. At Mecca he stayed three months and afterwards visited Medina.
After enduring privations and sufferings of the severest kind, he returned to Cairo in June 1815 in a state of great exhaustion; but in the spring of 1816 he travelled to Mount Sinai, whence he returned to Cairo in June, and there again made preparations for his intended journey to Fezzan. Several hindrances prevented his
prosecuting this intention, and finally, in April 1817, when the long-expected caravan prepared to depart, he was seized by dysentery and died on the 15th of October. He had from time to time carefully transmitted to England his journals and notes, and a copious series of letters, so very few details of his journeys have been lost. He bequeathed his collection of 800 vols. of oriental manuscripts to the library of Cambridge University.
‘Locating a novel, short story, or poem without knowing its title or author can be very difficult. This guide is intended to help readers identify a literary work when they know only its plot or subject, or other textual information such as a character’s name, a line of poetry, or a unique word or phrase.”‘
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We are excited to be working with the nice ladies at 
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