Free Online Book on Ornamental Letters

A great find on Project Gutenberg -- illustrated book called Letters and Lettering: A Treatise with 200 Examples by Frank Choutou Brown.

Ivan Bilibin (3)

Vassilisa outside Baba Yaga's House. Note the amanita mushrooms in the margins.

Ivan Bilibin (2)

DOBRYNIA NIKITICH FREES ZABAVA PUTIATICHNA FROM GORYNYCH THE DRAGON. Illustration to "The Tale of the Capital City of Kiev and of the Russian Bogatyrs" by N. Vodovozov. 1941. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/liberal_arts/foreign/russian/art

Ivan Bilibin

This 1920's Russian artist created gorgeous illustrations for Russian folktales.

The Age of Innocence

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Originally uploaded by vidalia_11.

I'm listening to this as an audiobook read by Brenda Dayne. It is a wonderful book by Edith Wharton. Beautifully written, sad, moving, emotional. Highly recommended. The movie is also excellent.

This audiobook is available as a podcast and on this website: http://brendadayne.blogspot.com/.

Henry Morton Stanley

I listened to an audiobook, Into Africa by Martin Dugard. First time I ever heard the real story of Stanley finding David Livingstone in central Africa. Livingstone was searching for the source of the Nile. He wouldn't leave Africa and died there. Stanley later returned to Africa and did a lot of exploration. [okay, it's more complicated than that.] This opens up a new area of interest for me. The explorers of Africa, South America, and South Pacific faced incredible dangers and illnesses. What made them go to these places and then conquer them?

Liam's Images From Old Books

This person has scanned a lot of images from antique books, including their covers. Really great stuff.
http://www.fromoldbooks.org/

Adrienne Segur

Another beautiful illustration. http://segur.artpassions.net/

Republished!

This book I remember from childhood has been published again and is available at amazon.com. Hurrah!! My older cousin owned it and I envied it greatly. Golden Book of Fairy Tales, translated by Marie Ponsot and illustrated by Adrienne Segur.

The Diary of a Nobody

From Wikipedia: The diary is that of Mr Charles Pooter, a lower middle-class man, a city clerk, with modest social pretensions. Other characters include his wife Carrie (Caroline), his son Lupin, his friends Mr Cummings and Mr Gowing, and Lupin's unsuitable fiancée, Daisy. The humour comes from Pooter's unconscious gaffes and self-importance, as well as the snubs he receives from his supposed betters. This is a very funny book, originally serialized in Punch in 1888-89. I didn't want it to end, but unfortunately, it did. It is also free as an audiobook from Librivox.org, very entertainingly narrated by Martin Clifton.