I took a vacation day on Friday, ostensibly to work on my kitchen rehab – but my lunch “meeting” and shopping trip were a great deal more fun than installing a sub-floor and leveling cabinets. Chris and I met at Tom+Chee for grilled cheese and tomato soup, then ambled the few blocks down to one of my favorite places in Cincinnati: Ohio Book Store.
With five floors of used books, it’s the perfect place to search for 1930s novels to use as exemplars for the design and production choices for Roy Underhill’s forthcoming book, “Calvin Cobb – Radio Woodworker! A Novel with Measured Drawings.”
Because Roy’s book will feature illustrations, we spent a most of our limited time (we were both parked at 1-hour meters) perusing the shelves in the “juvenile” section, thinking books therein would be most like the look we want…not that we yet know exactly what that look is.
The content of the volumes didn’t matter to us at all; they just had to look good. But rest assured – we weren’t just judging the books by their covers – we also judged their bindings, typography and layout. (Don’t worry; we’ll skip the self-destructing acid paper common in the period – that’s a verisimilitudinal* step too far).
I think we got four books for less than $20, each of which had things we liked and things we didn’t – or things we loved but are likely impractical (inked edges on the pages, for example). We’ll pass these along to the designer for inspiration…a hand-off I’m hopeful will come soon, so she or he can get started on the layout and font selection.
I mentioned last week that I’ve the updated manuscript in hand, and I’ve now completed a full read-through and have just a couple of questions for Roy. The next step is to talk with Roy about my notes and any additional edits he wants to make, then fact-check all dates, building names, numbers etc., and finalize the illustrator. We’ll be working on the drawings alongside layout, leaving blank pages where the art will later be dropped in.
Right now, we’re on schedule to have it edited, illustrated, printed, bound and on its way to you well before the end of the year.
* Yes, I know that’s not a word – but it should be, along with “whelmed.”
Looking forward to the book. I love dumpster diving in used bookstores in my area and we have lots!
Looking forward to this book!
I hereby promise to buy everything Lost Art Press ever makes. Eventually.
(PS: you may want to rethink that last apostrophe… )
Ack! My iPad just won’t learn. It always wants to add apostrophe in “well,” too.
I love inked edges.
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Whelmed isn’t a word? Dangit!
Actually, whelmed does appear to be a word: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whelm
Definition of WHELM
transitive verb
1
: to turn (as a dish or vessel) upside down usually to cover something : cover or engulf completely with usually disastrous effect
2
: to overcome in thought or feeling : overwhelm
intransitive verb
: to pass or go over something so as to bury or submerge it
See whelm defined for kids »
Examples of WHELM
Origin of WHELM
Middle English
First Known Use: 14th century
Related to WHELM
Synonyms
crush, devastate, floor, grind (down), oppress, overcome, overmaster, overpower, prostrate, snow under, swamp, overwhelm
Related Words
deluge, drown, sink; confute, defeat, refute; break, demoralize, distress, disturb, rock, shatter, stagger, throw, unman, unnerve, upset
And verisimilitudinous might be the word you were looking for?
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/19430/why-do-people-say-over-and-underwhelmed-but-never-just-whelmed
“If a boat is whelmed it means that waves are coming right up to the gunwales, the tiptop of the sides of the boat, and some water is sometimes coming into the boat. This is something you can cope with but isn’t pleasant. There seems to be little use for this word in a non-jargon or metaphorical sense.
“When a boat is overwhelmed, water is just pouring over the sides and into the boat. This is almost certainly going to lead to sinking, capsizing and other horrible things. The word overwhelmed became hugely popular as a metaphor for anything you can’t cope with that is sinking you.
“Underwhelmed is a backformation and works only metaphorically. Nobody says “the weather is lovely, the sea is calm, the boat is underwhelmed.” It started as a jokey comment, much like saying an actress can display the whole range of emotions from A to B, but these days is used with sincerity and no sense of wordplay by people who just see it as a synonym for “disappointed” or “not excited.”
I must live under a rock. Thirty years in Cincy and I’ve never heard of the place; Ohio Book Store. I need to get downtown more.
Megan, one of my most precious memories is going to a place suspiciously like you describe in downtown Cincinnati 5 or 6 Saturdays a year with my dad. Always got to buy a few books and always ate at White Castle on the way home. Heaven for a pre teen boy
There used to be another, similar, institution on Main: Acres of Books. Sadly, it’s gone now.
My wife came home this evening with a book bag from Barnes & Noble with a very period illustration: Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, The Secret in the Old Attic, by Carolyn Keene. Another possible source for ideas. Just a thought.