The View from the Attic

I think summer has chosen to skip us this year. I should be reading, but since the weather refuses to warm up (it's still in the 50's here in coastal Maine and we haven't seen the sun in over a week.) I decided to take advantage of the cool weather and climb to the attic to work on the 65 cartons of books that remain to be unpacked, cataloged in LT, and shelved someplace (YIKES!). It's perfect weather for the attic--not too hot, not too cold. My wireless laptop works fine up here in the tree tops and sits on a work table by a window where I can see lots of fog on the river thru the trees and sometimes, if I'm lucky, the Bald Eagle comes to sit on the branch right in front of the window. Yesterday I cataloged some books we inherited from my Dad: Samuel Eliot Morison's entire History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. My husband has coveted those ever since he met me, and Dad left them to him when he died back in 2007. I'm also working on the Great Books of the Western World set we got from him. Today, I grabbed a box we inherited from hubbie's great aunt who died at age 92 in 2000. She was an incredibly well-read woman and going thru her boxes always yields up treasures. I found three I was especially pleased with. The first two were real finds for my "Things Portuguese" category in the 999 challenge: These Portuguese by Manuel Cabral, a 1930's self-published monograph written in English and Portuguese that describes the Azores islands for descendants of Azorean immigrants so they would know about their heritage; and A History of the Azores Islands by James H. Guill--this one is listed on Alibris and Amazon as selling for over $150!!! (It's considered 'very rare'.) WOW. Both of these are going downstairs onto the TBR shelf. The final find of the morning is an incredible volume (1585 pages!!) : An Anthology of World Prose, edited by Carl Van Doren. The tome has selections (in translation thank goodness) from Chinese, Japanese, Sanskrit, Arabian, Persian, Hebrew, Egyptian, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Scandinavian, Russian, English, Irish, and American literature. I had to wonder why Auntie chose it since it had no Portuguese!!! It was published in 1935 by Literary Guild and is a real masterpiece. I figure if I can read one selection a week, I might finish it before I die. Come to think of it, it would make an incredible challenge for my fellow LTer's. Hmmmm...... Maybe if I make Treasures in the Attic a weekly post, I'll be forced to get through these cartons in another year or so.