The first thing I finished over break were the simple socks using the "Harald the Proud" Opal sock yarn.

I'm glad I made the effort to make them match; I think with a busy and asymmetrical striping pattern they would have looked kind of a mess otherwise.



They're just simple socks - a 7 by 1 rib, with a slipped stitch heel flap and the basic toe decreases. I did continue the ribbing all the way down the toe which is a little different.

I also am going to go ahead and reveal the "mystery" of the thing I found that will help me fulfill a goal:



Remember how I said back in January that my New Year's Resolution was going to be to read more Shakespeare? I never started that - in part, because a check of the plays available on dvd at my university library revealed few (most are on VHS - and while I still have a player, it's integral to my old television, and both are packed away, which would require more effort and set up to watch videotapes). And then I got busy with learning the piano. But after I found these, I decided to revisit that resolution.

While I was up visiting my parents, I was helping my brother search for a rock tumbler that he knew he had, and I ran across these (both were in the garage*)

I bought these years ago - I think I bought them at a used-book sale my high school (which had been open since the late 1820s) had when they cleared out both some of their library storage, and also books people had donated.

All of the books are over 100 years old, which pleases me. (Mostly from the 1890s). The Shakespeare plays may not necessarily be the ones I'd choose to read - this partial set is weak on comedies, and there's no Hamlet or Richard III or Henry V (all plays I want to read, eventually). But used editions of Shakespeare are probably pretty widely available, and I bet a quick check of the used book stores either in Denison or McKinney (I plan to go this weekend) will turn up copies of what I want - perhaps even in that very same series (this one is published by "Harper and Brothers Publishers, Franklin Square" and edited by William J. Rolfe, Litt. D.) Or, failing that, perhaps Powell's or Alibris will have what I want. (I admit I like the idea of all the books being of the same series, even if my copy of Julius Caesar is a slightly different edition, and I find a copy of Antony and Cleopatra on my shelves here that is from a different publisher)

The other two books in the stack are one of three epic poems (Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which I read back in high school, and then Sohrab and Rustum, which is apparently Matthew Arnold's take on an ancient Persian story, and Enoch Arden, which is (I think) a tale of three young people growing up impoverished in Scotland) and a book called "Sonnets of This Century" which is, of course, the 19th. (it was published some time between 1882 and 1888; there is a poem in it referring to an event in 1882, but they list Matthew Arnold as still living and he died in 1888)

The books themselves probably have little "collector value" as the spines and edges are a bit worn, but they're still good reading copies. And I mainly value books for what they contain rather than what they are as objects (though I do like a nicely produced book with nice illustrations - and these have some interesting engravings showing the settings of different plays, or in a couple cases, scenes from plays "after" some particular production of them).

But there's another reason I like these older books - the sense that they belonged to someone before me; the reminder that they've been around longer than I have



I have no idea who Charles Goulden was. His name is in most of the Shakespeare books in the stack, so they came either from his own collection (or, considering that I bought them in the mid 1980s, the collection of one of his heirs). Obviously he lived in Cleveland (not far from where I grew up) and he meticulously noted when each book was purchased (I assume; maybe it was when he had finished reading each one). This one was purchased (or completed) February 18 of 1892. And I kind of love that. And I kind of love that he just used a slash for the "18" of "1892" - not thinking, as most of us did not in 1992, that there was a new century just around the corner.

I don't generally write in books myself. In ones I loan out (an increasingly rare practice these days after losing a few to people I thought I could trust to return them), I will sign my name on the flyleaf or one of the first blank pages. And once in a while I may underline or draw an asterisk next to an important point (but always in pencil). And I admit annoyance when I buy a used book (usually a more recent used book, and usually one that turned out to belong to a student) and find it all underlined or highlighted inside, or snarky comments written, because then I feel like the previous owner is hanging over my shoulder, imposing his or her opinions on my reading of the book. But I do kind of like the idea of finding the name of someone long-gone in the used books I buy. I never will know who Charles Goulden was, but I can kind of imagine him shyly nodding at me or smiling across the more-than-a-century.

(Who was he? Was he a student? A teacher? Just someone who wanted to learn Shakespeare? I'm tempted to Google his name and see if I can find it, but I suspect there were enough Charles Gouldens out there - and unless he did something famous (or infamous, and it would make me sort of sad to find out that the previous owner of my little books was a famous swindler or something) or is on one of the genealogy sites, that I wouldn't find anything to help me, and it might be impossible to figure out which of the Charles Gouldens he was.)

(*I know the garage is not the best place to store books, but there wasn't room yet in the main house, and the attic gets too hot in the summer, and the basement is too damp. And both the attic and basement are more prone to have mice)