I have talked about our old library before, the one that was the American library after the war before it merged with the city's library not even that long before I started using it.
I had also mentioned that the building is an apartment building now. I wish I had pictures of the inside which are still so vivid in my mind, the door I still seem to feel pushing (and hear), heck, even the restroom that I never used because I was never brave enough to ask for the key (it was not in the library, but in the hallway right next to the entrance) which meant some visits had to be cut short.
In one post I wrote "The feeling of going in there and not only looking for new books, but also returning over and over again to the comfort reads of my childhood, drawn to certain shelves like a magnet still lingers in my memory."
And three years ago I commented on a blog "When I was a child and teenager, our local library had a whole shelf full of these books and I loved the look of all the beautiful spines together. As I obviously had neither the space nor money to own them myself, I at least wanted to read each one of them and also read them to my little brother, but I don't think I ever made it all the way through. So many books to read, so little time."
Today I want to talk about that shelf that held the series called "Märchen der Weltliteratur" (Fairy Tales of World Literature) published by Diederichs (which the library still has, by the way).
The series was published from 1912 to 1940 in Jena and then again from 1952 in other cities, such as Düsseldorf.
It consists of 182 volumes, but if you don't count some of the revised editions, but only the different countries or topics, there are 165 of those.
I wonder if there's someone who has them all. They really would take up a lot of space, though.
I love the elaborate black and golden spines with the titles embossed in gold on different colors and always thought it was a pity you didn't see the beautiful cover patterns which were so typical for this series for so long without pulling the books out (newer editions were paperbacks and the covers got modernized).
On the other hand, it was always such a surprise to pull one out randomly to see what it looked like. I'm so easy to please sometimes.
These 15 volumes were an eBay lot and I got them for less than €1 per book, postage included. I just couldn't resist, sentimental fool that I am.
But look at them, they are so pretty! They look as if they came fresh from a bookshop, they have their original plastic jackets, and even the ends of the ribbon bookmarks are still stuck inside the books. When I carefully opened some of them, they made that small "first time sound".
Do you know what I mean? That slightly creaking sound when the spine is moved and the solid edging - grey at the top in this case - "opened up" for the first time?
Most of these are from the 70s, but the oldest one is from 1958.
Where have they been all this time? Are they really untouched and if so, why? Were they merely used for decoration? Or were they unloved gifts that the recipient didn't dare to give away?
It is an interesting mix - Japan, China, Vietnam, Korea, Tibet, India, for example, but there's also Kabylia (which I admit I had to look up, it's a region in Northern Algeria), Denmark, and one volume is completely in the Low German dialect!
One of the books I looked at had this flyer inside listing prices for the "lion books" (named after the publisher's logo) in 1974, a lot more than I paid for them, I can tell you.
Will I read them all? Well, from cover to cover ... I don't know. There are a few hundred fairy tales in these volumes. But who knows, maybe I could do one every night before I go to sleep, and maybe I'll tell you about them every, now and then?
I had also mentioned that the building is an apartment building now. I wish I had pictures of the inside which are still so vivid in my mind, the door I still seem to feel pushing (and hear), heck, even the restroom that I never used because I was never brave enough to ask for the key (it was not in the library, but in the hallway right next to the entrance) which meant some visits had to be cut short.
In one post I wrote "The feeling of going in there and not only looking for new books, but also returning over and over again to the comfort reads of my childhood, drawn to certain shelves like a magnet still lingers in my memory."
And three years ago I commented on a blog "When I was a child and teenager, our local library had a whole shelf full of these books and I loved the look of all the beautiful spines together. As I obviously had neither the space nor money to own them myself, I at least wanted to read each one of them and also read them to my little brother, but I don't think I ever made it all the way through. So many books to read, so little time."
Today I want to talk about that shelf that held the series called "Märchen der Weltliteratur" (Fairy Tales of World Literature) published by Diederichs (which the library still has, by the way).
The series was published from 1912 to 1940 in Jena and then again from 1952 in other cities, such as Düsseldorf.
It consists of 182 volumes, but if you don't count some of the revised editions, but only the different countries or topics, there are 165 of those.
I wonder if there's someone who has them all. They really would take up a lot of space, though.
I love the elaborate black and golden spines with the titles embossed in gold on different colors and always thought it was a pity you didn't see the beautiful cover patterns which were so typical for this series for so long without pulling the books out (newer editions were paperbacks and the covers got modernized).
On the other hand, it was always such a surprise to pull one out randomly to see what it looked like. I'm so easy to please sometimes.
These 15 volumes were an eBay lot and I got them for less than €1 per book, postage included. I just couldn't resist, sentimental fool that I am.
But look at them, they are so pretty! They look as if they came fresh from a bookshop, they have their original plastic jackets, and even the ends of the ribbon bookmarks are still stuck inside the books. When I carefully opened some of them, they made that small "first time sound".
Do you know what I mean? That slightly creaking sound when the spine is moved and the solid edging - grey at the top in this case - "opened up" for the first time?
Most of these are from the 70s, but the oldest one is from 1958.
Where have they been all this time? Are they really untouched and if so, why? Were they merely used for decoration? Or were they unloved gifts that the recipient didn't dare to give away?
It is an interesting mix - Japan, China, Vietnam, Korea, Tibet, India, for example, but there's also Kabylia (which I admit I had to look up, it's a region in Northern Algeria), Denmark, and one volume is completely in the Low German dialect!
One of the books I looked at had this flyer inside listing prices for the "lion books" (named after the publisher's logo) in 1974, a lot more than I paid for them, I can tell you.
 |
| I pulled out the ribbon of the book in the back. |
Will I read them all? Well, from cover to cover ... I don't know. There are a few hundred fairy tales in these volumes. But who knows, maybe I could do one every night before I go to sleep, and maybe I'll tell you about them every, now and then?
 |
| Old relief with the Diederichs logo, picture by Andreas Praefcke, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons |
