Old Books: I mentioned in my Amputations 15th Century post that I’d bought a book on medicinal herbs. Specifically, I bought Medicinal Plants and Their History by Edith Grey Wheelwright. I found the book on Amazon Marketplace. Buying from there can always be a bit of an adventure, especially when the book is used. You never quite know what you’ll get.
The book arrived a couple of days ago. As advertised, it’s in good shape. I instantly sensed that it used to belong to a library. The library card pocket in the front and the Dewey Decimal strip on the spine helped tip me off. When I searched for books on herbs and medicine and history, there were tons of results. I chose the one that sounded like its main focus is historical, since that’s where my interest lies. Only $8, so not much of a risk, though the shipping and handling cost almost the same amount as the book.
I didn’t realize the book is old. Copyright 1974, and it’s a republication of a book Houghton and Mifflin released in 1935, called The Physick Garden: Medicinal Plants and Their History. The pages haven’t yellowed, but it smells like an older book. Usually the feel of a book in my hands doesn’t do anything for me; I’m always more interested in what’s inside its cover. But there is something a little special about older books. Or maybe I’m developing a greater appreciation for older things as I age! I’d better not say that to my partner. 
Dover Publications is the publisher. On the back cover is a blurb that talks about the quality of the physical book and describes the type of paper used in its production. The blurb ends with the words, “This is a permanent book.” Based on the rest of the blurb, it sounds like the publisher was trying to say that the book wouldn’t fall apart like paperbacks often did (to justify the higher cost of the book, perhaps?).
Anyway, the table of contents and a quick flip through the book’s pages confirmed that it suits my needs. I’m looking forward to reading it and will probably start it this week.
Amazon.ca tip (try at your own risk if you’re not ordering from amazon.ca): You probably already know this, but unless you need whatever you’re ordering yesterday, dammit!, never ask to have your order shipped in parts as items become available, which costs extra. If everything is in stock except an item or two, tell Amazon to wait until your entire order is ready. If the outstanding items take more than a couple of weeks to arrive at Amazon’s warehouse, Amazon will go ahead and ship whatever it has, at no extra charge. So you’ll wait a little longer for the “In Stock” items, but if you’re not in a hurry, you’ll still get them within a couple of weeks, even if the rest of your order still isn’t available.
New Books: I’m finally interested in buying an eBook reader. I can read eBooks on my computer, but what I’d really like to do is read them while I’m commuting, since on most days that’s the only time I can read. So what eBook reader should I buy? The number one requirement: it must support PDF files, since that’s the format of most of the books and stories I buy/download.
Forget the Kindle 2—it’s not available in Canada. I could probably order it from the US, but the version that supports PDF files natively is almost $500 US. Um, I don’t think so; I could buy a whole computer for that. Sony eReader? What else exists? I don’t want a netbook, not for transit. Sometimes I have to stand, so I need something light that I can hold in one hand. I recently read that Best Buy will soon sell eReaders, but I don’t know if that’ll only be in the US or also in Canada. It would be great to try out different readers in a store before buying one.
So I’ll be reading eBook reader reviews and trying to figure out what to buy. Suggestions welcome.
