The Proud Tower

I stole these two books from my Dad when I reorganized and cataloged his library a few months back, because they aren’t topics he’s interested in, while I am very much so into World War I. So, I “procured” them. And today, I finished reading “The Proud Tower”, after finishing “Mr. Wilson’s War” last month. These aren’t the smoothest books to read, and “The Proud Tower” did a deep dive into very detailed events that helped form the cataclysm which was The Great War.

The title of the book is derived from the 1845 Edgar Allan Poe poem “The City in the Sea”. Two lines of the poem are used as the epigraph for the book: “While from a proud tower in the town/ Death looks gigantically down.”

Coincidentally, I had purchased a paperback of “The Proud Tower” not long before I found the hardback in my Dad’s possession, and was already a hundred pages into it. I prefer hardbacks, and while I have three of Barbara Tuchman’s other books in that format already, I didn’t have this one. I was close to buying it off of Amazon, but didn’t. Just days later I just happened to run across it as mentioned.

Another neat thing about this adventure is that these two hardback books are from the same personal library of someone I don’t know. Maybe Dad picked these up at the annual Jefferson County Library Sale, but otherwise, who knows.

And for being sixty-five year old books, they are in PRISTINE condition. Like-new, maybe a few minor bends in the dust jackets, and a very slight fading in the paper. But they are great to hold while reading.

In any case, they will be together on my shelf from now on, due to this experience.

I’ll be reading the book Tuchman is most known for soon: “The Guns of August”, which covers the Great War specifically. “The Proud Tower” is the prequel to that one. My copy is the Easton Press, leather-bound edition, quite exquisite.

Books: A Very Dangerous Game

I play a very dangerous game: I find a book at the thrift store that is right up my alley. It isn’t on sale. It isn’t on the list of books that I own (a very well cultivated and extensive list, I might add.)

But, I KNOW that I have this book. Haven’t seen it in a long time because I know it is in the back row of the shelf. But… it isn’t on my list. I have the World War II set of these, maybe I have this mixed up with those?

So, what do I do. Buy this at full price, find out I already have it, and have to bring it back for one of those annoying refunds where they have to call the manager up to the front to issue a refund card? Or, let it sit at the store and take a risk that I already have it. Hope that if I don’t have it, it will still be at the store. Wait a week, hope it is still there so that I can get it for half-off?

The trauma. I know in my bones that I have this book. I take the risk of leaving at the store, and the first thing I do when I get home… there it is! Turns out I bought it off an eBay auction in 2008, and it was with the World War II set of them in the back row, as predicted. That back row is tricky because unlike the front row, where I see the books every day, the back row is hidden and it is easy to forget what books are there.

Anyway. It is like playing the lottery in a way. Today, I win! The disturbing part is that there was a book on my shelf that wasn’t on my list. I’m quite a stickler with this list. Looks like I’m actually quite a… failure with this list.

Actually, that list has kept me from buying the same book many, many times, (books are often reprinted with different covers, things like that make obscure books in my library easy to purchase again on accident.) so this can be written off as a glitch, never to occur again.