#reference books

[elderscrollsconceptart]

Its fun to meme about how the dragons all look like birds doing poses in Adam's concept art, but its very clear that Adam was working directly off real reference photos of avians as he was designing the dragons.

There's a piece I've not posted yet which is a super cute plan view sketch of Adam's office and one of the things he labels is a shelf full of reference books. I'd bet real money there was a picture book of birds on that shelf. God I'd love to see the actual bird pictures he borrowed his dragon poses from.

[riesenfeldcenter]

Happy Solar Eclipse day! 🌑🌒🌞

Here is our copy of the 4th edition, volume 1, of Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1773) and Johnson's definitions of "eclipse" and "ecliptick." This is one of our larger books, which is especially evident next to our smallest book (The Inaugural Address of John Fitzgerald Kennedy).

ECLI'PSE. n.

1. An obscuration of the luminaries of heaven; the sun is eclipsed by the intervention of the moon; the moon by the interposition of the earth. The word originally signifies departure from a place, to which Milton alludes.

2. Darkness; obscuration.

To ECLI'PSE v. a. [from the noun]

To darken a luminary.

To extinguish; to put out.

To cloud; to obscure.

To disgrace.

You might spot some words you don't know within eclipse's surrounding entries. A new one to me was "eclegma," "A form of medicine made by the incorporation of oils with syrups, and which is to be taken upon a liquorice stick."

[goshyesvintageads]

World Book Inc, 1975

[machetelanding]

[clove-pinks]

Fashion History Books on Internet Archive

Illustration in La Mode by Paul Gavarni, c. 1835 (Rijksmuseum)

A selection of some of my favourites, free to read and check out once you create a (free) account!

Handbook of English Costume in the 19th Century, by C. Willett Cunnington and Phillis Cunnington. I can vouch for this as one of the greatest books in my collection, extensive menswear information. By the same authors: English costume in the Eighteenth, Seventeenth, and Sixteenth centuries.

A History of Men’s Fashion, by Farid Chenoune. A masterwork, absolute must-read primer on men’s fashion from the late 18th century to the late 20th century.

The Encyclopedia of World Costume by Doreen Yarwood. Covers many different cultures over a huge span of time so most topics are not treated in-depth, but still a great reference.

The History of Underclothes, by C. Willett Cunnington and Phillis Cunnington. Also covers men’s shirts in Western dress history, as these were considered undergarments.

Fashioning the Body: An Intimate History of the Silhouette, edited by Denis Bruna. A collection of essays on changing dress silhouettes in Western fashion over time, some of them very insightful. 

The Dictionary of Fashion History, by Valerie Cumming. This is the first edition and I have the second, but my top fashion history dictionary and go-to for textiles and items of dress!

[detroitlib]

From our picture files: "Assistant answers patron's question at ready reference desk...", from ALA Bulletin April 1968

[showamagicalgirls]

When I got home from my work trip, I was greeted by this book I ordered — a magical girl encyclopedia about the early Studio Pierrot magical girls.

[nudeartpluspoetry]

Recognized as an outstanding reference book by a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The 10 books recognized are deemed especialy worthy for medium-sized and small libraries. Print and electronic versions.

[urbs-in-horto]

My Chicago books section...

[feelingkoii]

I keep amassing reference books on the most strangest range of topics and idk I kinda love it

These are lowkey so useful for worldbuilding and as a jumping off point because I can just look up herbs and change them / adjust them for worldbuilding

[misforgotten2]

“Wow! 50 states already? I bet by 1970 there’ll be 60. And by the year 2000, a hundred!”

National Geographic Magazine  - August 1960

[spaceintruderdetector]

To the Architectural Student, who is earnestly seeking to gain a knowledge of the principles which guided the Master Masons of the Middle Ages in the erection and development of their glorious buildings, nothing can be more acceptable or of a greater service to him than representing in detail their mode of forming and setting out the smallest matters connected with their works, for it is only by studying in this manner that he can hope ever to arrive :it a thorough knowledge of Gothic Architecture. "With this object in view, both from the commencement of the "Gothic Ornaments" and also throughout the present "Work, I have endeavoured to elucidate every part that I have represented clearly and distinctly, and at as large a scale as the size of the book would allow.

In the two Works — I have now completed four volumes containing altogether upward* of four hundred plates — developing, in the first, Foliated Ornament and Coloured Decoration, and in the last, more particularly the constructive and practical " Details of Gothic Architecture." The manner in which they have been received by the Profession, and the many very flattering encomiums which have been passed upon them during the ten years that I have now been engaged upon them, assures me that I have not been labouring altogether in vain, and that they will not fail to become a welcome addition to the library of the Architect.

Upon issuing the Prospectus of " The Details," I stated that it was not my intention to interfere with the "Analysis of Gothic Architecture," by Messrs. Brandon, but that I should endeavour to more fully elucidate such features as were only paitially developed by them. To this I have adhered, and rather than interfering, it will be found that one work will be a great assistance to the other, and the possessor of one will find it to his advantage to procure the other.

Details of Gothic architecture : Colling, James Kellaway : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

[brother-hermes]

ARYEH KAPLAN WAS SO THOROUGH

It’s taken me two years to study this book. Dude literally wrote 400 something pages of commentary on a text that only contained 114 pages originally.

Don’t get me wrong, the Sefer Yetzirah isn’t some simple text we can just read once and completely understand. There are so many facets and applications one almost has to explore.

What’s weird is I started reading this text as I converted to Judaism and ended up understanding so much of Dion Fortunes work. You can almost see the Golden Dawn system unfolding in its text. Absolutely intense work.

If you’d like to read more on Jewish Mysticism I would highly recommend this text. Link below.

[kornwulf]

There's nothing I love more than going "I think I want to learn more about ____" and then realizing "hey wait, I have a book on that!"

I'd been wanting to do some reading about ballooning (because they're a really weird subsection of flying machines) and then I had a Eureka moment that one of the (wagonload of) books I schlepped home after my high school cleared out it's reference section was named "The Romance of Ballooning: The Story of the Early Aeronauts"

It's always fun to realize that you already have that exact repository of knowledge at your disposal

[rawtoonage]

Long story short, this is me showing off what I used my birthday money for

(granted my birthday was last Thursday 😅)

[showamagicalgirls]

This book is an English-language reference book on live-action Japanese TV dramas, but I find myself going back to it over and over again specifically for the introduction which offers a concise history of the Japanese television industry. It offers me a good sense of context for a lot of my interests, including the topics of this blog.