[BKARTS] BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS

[Richard Adamiak <adambook@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Presently re-reading Melville's White-Jacket (his experience during a long 
cruise on a US warship; pub. 1850) and just encountered the following:

        I was by no means the only reader of books on board the Neversink. 
Several other sailors were diligent readers, though their studies did not 
lie in the way of belles-lettres. Their favorite authors were such as you 
may find at the book-stalls around Fulton Market; they were slightly 
physiological in their nature. My book experiences on board the frigate 
proved an example of a fact which every book-lover must have experienced 
before me, namely, that though public libraries have an imposing air, and 
doubtless contain invaluable volumes, yet, somehow, the books that prove 
most agreeable, grateful, and companionable, are those we pick up by chance 
here and there; those which seem put into our hands by Providence; those 
which pretend to little, but abound in much.

Melvile is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, a perfectly ordinary 
(and appropriate) tombstone. A visit with this uncompromising humane titan 
can change your life.

Richard Adamiak (Chicago) 

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