Saturday, March 26, 2011

Technically Speaking ...


Yesterday morning found us cruising along at 6:45 headed to a tiny burg with the delightful name of Novelty. I thought initially it was in Amish country, but then realized I’d confused Novelty with the town of Charm. At any rate, traffic wasn’t bad and the drive was fun -- until we got lost. Up and down the same road we flew more times than I can count, each time passing a small sign with the street name we needed. Usually you can just look for the estate sale sign, but there wasn’t one, which catapulted me into a panic thinking I’d read the ad wrong and the sale was actually Saturday, not Friday. But, then, just at the brink of implosion, the elusive street announced itself, we hung a relieved and grateful left, and were soon greeted with the usual line of cars.

For a house so beautiful and filled with so many treasures the turn-out was astoundingly low, but the offerings were largely contemporary which excluded most of the antiques dealers. Books abounded though, as did art. Had I been an art dealer I would have been sending up burnt offerings to the art gods, but as a book dealer, within twenty seconds I knew that no pyrotechnics would be required. One of the deepest pleasures of an estate sale is the lack of technologically enhanced buying, so I was amazed at the sight of two scanners waving their magic wands painstakingly, book by book, over such rarities as pop medical books from the 70’s and Bonanza reprints. I left them to the task and repaired to the lower level, scooping up the boxed case of Sotheby’s catalogs for the Duke and Duchess of Winsdor’s auction on the way. At first glance the downstairs offerings proved to be a mirror of those upstairs. But then I saw them – four beautiful technical titles in a row, snuggled together on the shelf waiting for someone to claim them.

Oh, how I love technical books and not just because the right ones can fetch good prices. I love them for themselves, which is crazy given my strong literary proclivities. I don’t know what is, but the sight of those drawings showing cross-sections of tires and blast furnaces and pages littered with mathematical equations call to me like the sound of Angelus bells. It’s a secret world, magical in its single-minded complexity, a world in which I am a traveler from afar leaning on my walking stick in a sort of bemused wonderment. I took them out one by one and cradled them like babies. They turned out to be as good as I expected too, especially the one about superplasticizers. Of course I haven’t a clue what superplasticizers are, but they have something to do with concrete and I’m all for concrete.

The reason I’m telling you this story is because it points out the need to expand our horizons, step out of our comfort zones, and learn something new. Technical books may not be your Mecca, which is perfectly okay, but try to find something else that leaves you a curious stranger in a strange land (with a nod to Heinlein of course). Maybe it will be books on chess, golf, Netsuke, or Noh theater  – it doesn’t matter. Just immerse yourself in strange waters and see what lies beneath. It could very well be the nucleus of specialization.

By the way, remember The Hot Rolling of Steel? (If not, see the post Angle for Success, February 15, 2011).The goal was to see if I could force a sale with book magic as I did earlier with the angling book and its predecessors. Once again – voila! – sold it this week a little over a month from start to finish.

2 comments:

Saturday Evening Post said...

When my favorite booksmith waxes poetic about equations and concrete, Heinlein and hot rolled steel, I have to applaud, cheer, and grin.
I recently discovered a delightful book about analog circuit design, which is a text on real engineering, an entertaining history, a philosophy, an appreciation of great designs, an ode to the joys of the field, and humorous to boot. Who would believe it?

tess said...

All I left out I think are buckyballs, pi, and the Mobius strip. Oh, and the Fibonacci sequence. But that's only so that I could entertain you LATER too.

Analong circuit design? Oh yeah, I'm all over that!