It's the Little Things

This last week I've been noticing all the little things, like book plates. Here's one of my favorites:

Because several of the books in the collection were donated and originally were part of someone's library, there have been some pretty fun little book plates tucked in here and there. Here's another one:

(R.L. Goldthorpe being the person quoted, not the former owner of the book).

Other little things I've noticed this week icludes titles. My favorite titles of the week are "Conservative Conservation," "Use and Value of Wild Birds to Texas Farmers and Stockmen and Fruit and Truck Growers," "Bryozoa, or Moss Animals," and last but not least "Food Habits of the Texas Dwarf Siren," which sounds mythological but is actually about salamanders.

The longest title I have seen, though, goes to this memorable entry:

(Which I happened to bump into while searching for something totally different).

A few other little things are prompting me to share a little soapbox moment: please be nice to your books and other materials! This is the amount of stuff I pulled out of books I was processing in one day:

The pink is fabric ribbons wrapped around magazines, the papers are all bits and pieces left tucked in amongst pages, and there's some staples tucked into the middle of the mess. These can hurt the binding, eat at the book, or leave marks on the materials if left in long enough. Another bane of books' and book peoples' existence: metal paperclips.

Notice the lovely patina of rust on this paperclip? It's not shabby chic, it's disgusting to pry off an old document which it was slowly crushing and corrupting. If you love something (and want it to last), set it free of metal accessories and acidic stuff like newspaper clippings and random papers. Also, scotch tape eats paper, so think twice before using it on anything you want to last longer than a haircut.

All of these little things add up, both short-term and long-term. I'm learning a lot through all of the little details that make a big difference.

Thanks for reading!

(sage life advice from a 1920s advertisement)