Preserving Culture

Posted by Valerie on July 9, 2011

We have to read more and think harder.

Keep reading real books. Read mysteries with slow and sometimes scary paths of discovery that lead to logical ends.

Keep reading fiction and poetry. The best of it tells truths about life and human nature that textbooks will never explore. Read beautiful descriptions that make your breath catch in wonder.

In big bites or small, keep reading the foundational documents of our culture. The Bible. The Institutes of the Christian Religion. The Magna Carta. The Mayflower Compact. The Articles of Confederation. The Declaration of Independence. The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787. The Constitution. The Federalist Papers, The Anti-Federalist Papers. The debates in the Congressional Record.

Read a lot less stupid news, a little less smart news, and a lot more of the source documents of present day culture. Read court decisions on subjects that interest you. (They aren’t that hard.)

Keep doing math and don’t skip geometry. (We like Life of Fred for all ages!)

Study logic and then study it some more. Know most fallacies when you see them.

Debate with people you love, who love you. Don’t be afraid; a difference of opinion is not inherently poisonous.

Watch a documentary and think hard. Watch a good drama and think harder.

Listen to more good music and less fleeting trash.

Hold onto what is precious with all your heart and mind and both hands, because there is one who will steal it away if the door is not closed to him.

Have children and give ‘em all you’ve got and all they’ll take. Give a hand up to the next generation in every way you can.

And trust. If what we see here crumbles, something else will arise. Civilizations have crumbled before and John 3:16 implies the promise that is everywhere in Scripture.

Warning to Readers

Posted by Valerie on November 26, 2008

Why Christians Should Avoid Great Books Like the Plague

Good reading!

Very Old Books

Posted by Valerie on April 12, 2008

My four best tips for buying very old books.

First, books have value only when people know they exist and want to buy them. There is little or no market interest in at least 95% of very old books. Old doesn’t sell. Content and importance sell, regardless of age.

Second, avoid anything published by published by A. L. Burt, Hurst, M. A. Donohue, Altemus, Mershon, or Goldsmith. Also avoid Grosset & Dunlap except for the juvenile series books (Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and so on).

Third, look for cloth or nice leather covers and white or light-colored paper. The better publishers produced most of the better books, and better publishers typically used better materials.

Fourth, classics became classics because they were printed from the very beginning in enormous quantities. Pirated editions and reprints are common.

A very, very old copy of Tom Sawyer or 20,000 Leagues under the Sea is unlikely to have significant value. (If it has brown, fragile pages and was published by Donohue, it’s probably best recycled.)

If you choose the most interesting, most attractive, best illustrated and bound books from what’s left you just might pick a winner!