My hour of learning has been taking a backseat to priorities around the house. The last week was primarily spent putting pine panelling along a wall in the "TV room" and them making a new bookcase/tv stand. I am very pleased with the results. Now to get back to some serious reading.

Yesterday I finished reading "The Book on the Bookshelf" by Henry Petrowski. This was a delightful read. The book traces the history of books and bookshelves from the middle ages to the present with even a glimpse of what the future may bring. It describes the practice of chaining books to the shelves to avoid "loss". This practise meant that books were placed on a shelf horizontally with the spine at the rear so the chain would dangle over the front of the shelf. The idea of arranging books vertically did not come into being until the need for "shelf space" became the top priority. It was still some time until the idea of having the spine face the front and to have some identifying marks on it.

I still prefer my "Buddhist Bookcases" that consist of pine shelves with vertical supports made of the same shelving material and covering a complete interior wall. Such an approach requires no nails and can be easily dismantled if the need arises. The shelves do not suffer from sagging and are very easy to build, since only simple of cuts of the shelving material to the appropriate length are required.