Lang's Fairy Books

I had to run and pick up a box from the post office today.

Of late, this has been somewhat fraught with trepidation for me. They have a new-ish employee who has a bit of an attitude issue and I've tangled with him a couple times.

I don't THINK it's me, I try very hard to be nice and polite and sweet and all that, even if I've been waiting in line for fifteen minutes and had someone's child practically screaming in my ear as the child's parent blithely ignores their tantrum.

But: once he told me that a box I had a slip for WAS NOT THERE. That it wasn't on the shelf, that either I was mistaken that I had a package or it had been sent back to the sender or whatever. Or that I was coming "too early," even though it had been a day and a half or so since I received the slip. (When I went back the next day? One of the nice ladies who worked there, when I told her, "Someone told me my box wasn't in" kind of snorted and said, "Yeah, he couldn't find it probably because someone misfiled it" and then found my box).

The second time, my mail carrier wrote down "702" as my house number (it is actually 720) and the guy practically refused to give me the box even though I said (because of the distinctive company name stamped on the box), "That's probably it back there." Even after I showed him my driver's license to PROVE I was at 720 he didn't really act like he should give me the box.

So I keep expecting to go in there and have him grumble at me again. Or say something, like one postal worker once remarked, "Wow, you get a lot of mail order packages" in a tone that suggested "If you didn't order so much junk, I wouldn't have to go retrieve these for you." (Again: I tend to be excessively nice so I wouldn't say "Ah, well. Perhaps next time I'll ask the company specifically to use UPS." But I'd probably THINK it. I mean, really: complaining about job security?)

Anyway. Fortunately Grumpy Man wasn't on duty today, so I got my box with minimal effort.

It was my most recent order from Folio Society. The two most recent reprints of the Andrew Lang Fairy Books.

There were 12 of these originally published in the first part of the 20th century. At this point, I have ten: I only lack Orange and Grey, which I do not think Folio has re-issued yet. (I hope they do, then I can have a complete set).

These are gorgeous books and are the kind of thing you really need - if you are going to have them at all - in a nice "permanent" edition with illustrations and good typeface and all of that.

Most of the ones I have - Blue, Yellow, Green, Pink, Crimson, Violet, Brown, and now Lilac and Olive, are the Folio editions. My copy of Red is actually the first one I ever had - it was my mother's copy, an early 1940s reprinting (I think by Bobbs-Merrill). I was given it when I was a child, and as I tended to be pretty careful with books, especially OLD books, I still have it and it's still in good shape.

I look at my copies now - they are mostly on one shelf, but I don't have room for the three most recent ones (Crimson, Lilac, and Olive), and I think I should get a special shelf for them. Either buy a single wall-mounted shelf that is long enough (and ideally would also have space for my copy of Grimm and Perrault - also both from Folio) and go through the process of locating the studs (that would be important, for a shelf to hold big hardbound books!) to put it up properly.  Or maybe get a small bookshelf that would fit behind my sofa, and put them all there. Because I kind of want them all together.

I don't read them often - though sometimes I will pull one down and read a story or two. But they're one of those things that is just nice to HAVE.

I have not decided if the eventual disposition of these will be donated to a library (possibly my university library, if such things still exist and if I am still at this university when I decide to start breaking up and giving away my library) or pass them on to my niece (though, God willing, by the time I leave this earth, she will be long on into adulthood - though if she turns out like me to have a love of these things, I could still pass them on to her). But for now I want a bit more of a place of honor for them, and somewhere where I can keep them all together. (And moving them to a "new" shelf frees up shelf space for OTHER books. I do have a few nice Folio history books that need a more permanent home).

I do really need to go through and cull my library again. It is hard for me to get rid of books, even ones I have read, but I'm fast running out of space, and I think it's (probably) easier for me to cull than it is for me to move to a larger house...