Great Big Books

 I think very large books that are not dictionaries or cookery books are often thought of nowadays as coffee table books. Are all coffee table books very large? I tend to think of books so described as being shiny and new, usually unread, but toning in with the décor of their surroundings in such a way as to make them more ornamental than anything else. Who would want to be the first to put a mark on them? Certainly you can put them out on your coffee table without fear that they will be 'borrowed', because they are much too heavy. I would never have enough coffee tables for all my large books. However, I prefer smaller books, for reasons of portability, ease of reading and holding. I googled the term 'coffee table book' and found that they have certain characteristics in common: they are large, illustrations are of prime importance, text is usually sparse; the paper is high-quality, and finally, they are usually much more expensive than normal books.

The large books I am discussing today don't fulfil all those criteria. Although they are lavishly illustrated, there is a lot of text also. They are definitely for reading as well as for looking at. The first three are in the same series. They are “Vanishing Ireland”, published by Hodder Headline, Dublin, 2006, “Further Chronicles of a Disappearing World” published by Hachette Books, Ireland, 2009, and the most recent one “Recollections of Our Changing Times, also published by Hachette Books, Ireland, 2011.

These all are by photographer James Fennell and writer Turtle Bunbury. They follow the same basic arrangement, personal stories of elderly people in Ireland, with their photos alongside Most of the contributors are surprisingly much older than their images would imply. Their stories are simply fascinating and yet they describe in the main quite ordinary events. The style of writing is easygoing, the photographs are so lifelike that you feel as you read that you really know these people. Most of those within these covers are living in or near their original family home; in their lives they were not adventurers, nor keen travellers. Their lives are the lives of everyday folk, and yet there is something enchanting about them. My husband bought the first book in the series, and flew through it in a day. I bought him the other two for Christmas. If you buy them for yourself, they will definitely be very sought-after in years to come, not alone because they are so enthralling to read but for their value to social historians. In the photographs, besides the amazingly interesting faces of the subjects, you can see their kitchens and living rooms, the old fireplaces, the ranges, the pictures on the walls. Here is Paddy Gleeson, a farmer from East Clare who was born in 1904, talking:

'Once, I was coming to school and I met two fellows leading a three-year-old bullock with horns. On his horns was a placard -'The Land for the People and the Road for the Bullock'. And beneath the bull, they were dragging a man who was after evicting a poor widow woman from her home.' The widow's home had been knocked but 'the local people seen how fast it takes to build a house but they did it faster. She was evicted at ten in the morning and she was inside a house that night they built for her in the day! Timber and galvanised!'

In the second book, Denis Galvin from Kerry, born 1945, responds to an enquiry about his age:

'Stop a minute, if I were hung by a rope since I was in my early fifties, I'd be pretty quare looking by now.'   Well, it doesn't do to give too much away, I suppose.

In the third book in the series, Sam Codd of Wicklow, bonesetter, farmer and horse breeder, born 1926, talks about his cars:

'The first car I had was a Morris Minor and I never had anything else,' he says. 'I used to travel around a lot, as a bonesetter, and I do be in a lot of the old farmer places and all that craic. I had two cars here one time, one for taking the girls out on Sunday and one for everyday'.

As far as I can tell, it was the bones of animals he set, but who knows! He talks about the dances held in farmhouses after the threshing:

'They were great auld craic. I remember one lad, a fecker for doing tricks, who wasn't asked to the dance. So he got a ladder up to the house and threw a grain sack over the chimney and smoked out the people inside. He said “They asked me to the threshing, but they didn't ask me to the dance.” '

These books are indeed too beautiful to risk getting coffee rings on them. And if the surface of a coffee table is not available to someone to rest a mug on, I would imagine that mug rings would be an ever present danger. They are also fairly expensive, almost thirty Euro each where we bought them, but they are worth every cent.

Model and Miniature Railways, edited by Patrtick B. Whitehouse and John Adams, published by the Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited in First New English Library Edition dated 1976, turned up in a church book sale. It is full of photographs of miniature railways running through gardens, houses, countryside. There are tiny trains and ones big enough for children and even adults to sit on. Towards the back of the book are detailed plans of the little engines and carriages. When I saw this book I immediately thought “Sheldon would love this”. I don't know if you have ever watched the American situation comedy “The Big Bang Theory”, but Sheldon Cooper is one of the main characters in it. I never used to watch TV, but one day by chance I watched this, and now I know what it means to be a devoted fan. I watch every episode of it that I can. All the characters in it are wonderful, but most of all I love Sheldon. I saw an interview on Youtube with the actor who portrays him and it is amazing how different the actor is from his character. I think Sheldon probably has a type of Asperger's Syndrome. I find his character totally enthrallling, and the joy of the show is particularly in his relationships with the other characters. One of his many hobbies is model railways. If you get a chance to see this show, do take a look, and you will understand why this book would suit Sheldon. What a pleasure it would be to give it as a gift to him, and get one of his strange, grimacing smiles in return.

Two books by The Diagram Group, both on the subject of games and sports, well justify their size, and could easily sit waiting to be consulted on any kind of table or shelf within reach of the sports pundit or card player. These came from a Christmas sale in the local Community Centre. The first is “Family Fun & Games”, published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. New York, dated 1992, and the second is “The Official World Encyclopedia of Sports and Games – The rules, techniques of play and equipment for over 400 sports and 1,000 games”, published by Paddington Press Ltd., New York & London, 1979. Although I am certainly no expert, I would guess that there is hardly a game not catered for in these books; card games of all sorts, parlour games, board games, all the rules for these are here in addition to, in the encyclopedia, the rules and regulations for every sport under the sun. I would say these books would settle many an argument for sporty types, and are worth their weight as reference books alone. They are in lovely condition; gone are the days when people donated torn or stained books to such sales, I am happy to say, and at a Euro each they were definitely a bargain. This is the sale where I heard a prissy seller say “My goodness, I didn't realise so many of the village people read books.” After hearing that, I was quite pleased to find two quite old and rare books, one signed by a rather famous author, in the boxes under her nose, and to realise that she didn't know an antique book when she saw one.

A highly colourful book full of easy to follow text and terrific diagrams and photos is “How Everything In The Home Works and how to take the sting out of repair bills” published by the Reader's Digest Association London 2003, Every machine and piece of home equipment you can think of is included, from electrical machines such as washing machines, kettles, breadmakers, ovens, to wheeled machines such as bicycles, scooters and roller skates. All kinds of cameras, analogue, digital and video cameras are covered, DVD players, CD players and so forth. The emphasis is on maintenance more than repair, the point being that if you understand your device and take care of it you won't need to call the repairman very often if at all. It tells you whether the job is one you can deal with yourself or is one that you should leave to the professional. The beginning chapters deal with safety, masks, goggles, how not to kill yourself, in fact. Reader's Digest books are ones that I think are very much taken for granted; I thought about this especially when I heard that the company might be in some difficulty caused by the financial recession. They are among the most useful books you will ever come across, just think of the Reader's Digest Book of the Car, or their gardening and houseplant volumes. Their digests and books are published in many languages; my sister and I became very competent at reading French in our teens, when our mother bought a boxload of French Reader's Digests at an auction. So it seemed natural that when I found “How Everything in the Home Works” sitting on a shelf in the recycling centre, I would make it mine immediately. It is in lovely condition, with not a single crease on a page, nor even a mark. I can't help wondering why it was discarded. The books to be found at the recycling centre in general call up that question. I don't wait too long for answers, for I'm away home with my new treasures.