My mom really enjoys books about the Old West (nonfiction only). I'd like to get her an addition to her collection for her birthday, but I have no experience in this particular genre. Can anyone out there pass on some suggestions? [more inside]
posted by orrnyereg on Aug 1, 2008 - 22 answers

I'm looking for an old science fiction novel about an evil, blue giant titled "The Blue Man" - the Google and Amazon search is poisoned by both The Blue Man Group, and a young-adult science fiction novel "The Blue Man" which isn't it at all. [more inside]
posted by Slap*Happy on Jun 27, 2008 - 3 answers

Resources for recreating the look and feel of 17th century books (their title pages specifically?) [more inside]
posted by fire&wings on Feb 19, 2008 - 9 answers

Does anyone recognize what book this illustration is from? It looks pretty old. Hopefully in the public domain.
posted by Charlie Lesoine on Jul 26, 2007 - 13 answers

I have some older college textbooks from the early to mid 1990s; is there conceivable market for these, or should I just throw 'em in the recycle bin? (They're mainly communication studies/theory, if that matters.
posted by keswick on Oct 14, 2005 - 13 answers

Back when I was in gradeschool in the late 60's early 70's, I found this book in our school library that I think was called "Puzzles" (maybe more, maybe not). It not only had puzzles but other things like rhymes (Biddy Bodder bought bum butter. Blah said she, bum butter bitter, but it's blended with my batter. Maybe if I get some better butter, blend it with my bitter batter, it'll make my bitter batter better....etc., etc.). There were also these little cartoons in the margins that were very interesting. There were optical illusions and magical tricks and it seemed like each page had something different and interesting. I remember signing that book out all time. Now I have kids of my own and would really love to get my hands on a copy of that book. I know this is a reach but, has anyone ever heard of this? Or, anyone know where there is a repository of old books that I could look? Doing a search for "puzzle books" is very ugly indeed.
posted by SparkyPine on Apr 13, 2005 - 8 answers