Scaffolding - Silent movie - Dead end at the Bodleian

My phone takes photos in the dark, so I have 2 of the scaffolding by our back door to add to this post.

Doesn't this remind you of ballet classes? I like the unplanned arrangement of the chairs too.

I also took a silent one handed movie of the things around me at this desk. I might do one of my other desk later. H did things in the kitchen on video, but I can't put that here. He said I sounded like my mother when I played it back.

I want to have a look at Arabic manuscripts, so off I go to the Bodleian. I'd have had more joy from going to the local garage! I did tell myself not to expect too much. It's annoying to be treated as if I had two heads yet again. After that I lurked in my own Department library in the basement and felt more human. On-line manuscript collections seem to be the new thing:

Wellcome Institute

Oxford Bodleian,

Univ of Michigan

Now to actually identify the oldest manuscript in each collection and start from there. I might eat that round chocolate as a prize once I get into one of these sites properly.

Ok, this one is from the 10th century. Now I need someone to answer my questions.

See how the manuscript, a set of pages like a little book, has been photographed from all 4 sides as an object in itself, pages 12 - 15.

I could read herdha and fi ulm on the top line of the first page, but using google translate hasn't helped me with both new words, only one. See the gobbledegook in the middle there.

Personal Libraries

I love the books in this house.

I love the spontaneous creation of libraries at Occupy events and at Gezi Park in Istanbul.

I loved the library at the end of our block beside Pimlico Tube Station in London where I grew up.

So...what I'd love to do would be to invite friends over to explore our library one Sunday afternoon. Imagine people sitting in various chairs, all seriously trying out different books and writing down lists of authors to try. After that I'd like to visit other people's book collections to learn from them.

Normally it is considered bad manners to look at the bookshelves rather than chat on a visit, so I'd love to deliberately change that. At my grandparents' homes and my parents' house I have always been able to spend time looking at their stuff, but as an adult it is not welcomed.

The other thing I want to do is rearrange our books now that T has done his last AS exam and is apart from the library at his school. I need to ask him what he will miss about his school and how we can find replacements.

Nothing can truly replace the beautiful library or entire building of St Paul's Girls' School or the college and university libraries at Durham, but everywhere I have lived has had libraries of one sort or another.