crappy old books

via Instapundit:

WARNING: Do not install the new Kindle-for-iOS app. It’s got serious problems. “Amazon yesterday updated its Kindle for iOS app, which works across iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, to version 3.6.1. The update was meant to fix a few bugs as well as the registration process. Instead, that update seems to be wreaking havoc on bookworm-style iThing owners who watched as their Amazon digital libraries and saved settings were erased before their eyes.”

 [my emphasis]

more crappy old books

I went to Palmer Home the other day in search of crappy old books and believe it or not– this is a first for me— I only found one! It’s a real find, though. Select Translations from Old English Prose edited by Albert S. Cook and Chauncey B. Tinker [there’s a last name that was selected against], published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1935. 

and more

It was from this crappy old book that I learned about Bebe, the scholar and monk who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation. The five volumes cover English history from A.D. 55, the time of J. Caesar’s invasion, to the book’s date of completion, 731.

modern books

I would not care to read Bebe in Latin nor in Old English but the modern translation I have is an easy and enjoyable read.

King Oswin was of a graceful aspect, tall of stature, affable in discourse, courteous in behavior, and bountiful to all, whether gentle or simple; so that he was beloved by every one for the kingliness of his spirit and his looks, and for his distinguished merit, and men of the very first rank came from almost every province to serve him. Among other virtues and rare endowments, if I may so express it, humility is said to have been his greatest, as one example may suffice to prove. (from Bk. 3 chap. 14 of EHEN; Oswin ruled from 644-651)

Now, see. Isn’t that easy to read– despite that first run on sentence? And aren’t I happy that passage in my crappy old library wasn’t erased before my eyes?