The Vintage Reader

Yesterday, inspired by The Little Professor, I went over to the university library to pick up Cold Comfort Farm. Since I had just mailed off a DVD of the 1995 movie version to my sister for her birthday, I was in the mood for it anyway, and to my delight, the library had not just one, but two copies--one from the 30s, and the sturdier one I checked out, from the 60s.

But even better, there were two other books by Stella Gibbons, whose books aren't that easy to find. I checked them both out, and, as is my habit with old books, took a look at the date due slip to see when they were last checked out.

I know this is a fairly strange habit, but I think it's interesting to see the patterns. This library's curious custom of stamping the date just any old place makes it a little harder than usual to see the circulation history, but the date due slip from The Bachelor tells me several things. First off, this edition of the book is the first edition, second printing, from October 1944. The fact that it wasn't checked out until 1957 probably means that this was a gift book--and sure enough, there's a donation bookplate in the front, although it's not filled out so there's no telling who donated it. It circulated once every few years in the '60s, which should have made it a prime target for weeding, but this library doesn't seem to weed very strenuously (fortunately for me; I've found some great old stuff there). In 1976 it was checked out for one day. And then nothing, for 20 years. All three books experienced a sudden surge in circulation after the movie of Cold Comfort Farm came out. And then not much until yesterday, when The Little Professor blogged a quote and I saw it and decided to get some weekend reading. :-)