"He has not one redeeming defect" - comment on William Gladstone by Benjamin Disraeli who died on this day in 1881.

Disraeli and Gladstone.

 In the Horncastle Bookshop, books on the history of 19th century Britain are many and varied. The bookshop building, in the 19th century, housed a disreputable 'beer-house' ( see Jabberwock Books - History ).

 

"I believe movies are the most powerful medium for change on earth. They are also a powerful medium for institutionalizing complacency, oppression and reaction. Steven's feeling about Gone with the Wind was so different from mine that when he said he considered it 'the greatest movie ever made' I felt the only appropriate response would be to faint" - Alice Walker, who was awarded the Pulitzer prize for "The Color Purple", on this day in 1983. Poetry by Alice Walker . Our cinema book list. At the Horncastle Bookshop, books on the cinema can be found in our new premises adjoining the original shop.

 

"The people of the United States are proud of the honourable conduct of our military. And I am proud to lead such brave and decent Americans." - George Bush, speaking on this day in 2003. We have a large and rapidly changing selection of books on current events in the Horncastle Bookshop, including books on the conflict in Iraq.

 

"Did you know his works have been translated into 145 languages, or that Chairman Mao was such a fan that he put Andersen's stories on the syllabus of every school in China ?" - Michael Booth in Just As Well I'm Leaving, an account of travels in the footsteps of Hans Christian Andersen, who was born on this day in 1805.

 

"Why ! had he been stiffe, proud, startcht & retired, as other formal Doctors are, he had known no more than they." - John Aubrey on William Harvey, who was born on this day in 1578.

 

" But all the world understands my language" - Franz Joseph Haydn, born on this day in 1732 (and died on the same day in 1809).

 

"Laughter is wine for the soul - laughter soft, or loud and deep, tinged through with seriousness, the hilarious declaration made by man that life is worth living." - Sean O'Casey - born on this day in 1880.

 

"This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing-room." - Virginia Woolf - died on this day in 1941.

 

"The wisest fool in Christendom" - Henry IV of France, describing King James I, who died on this day in 1625.

 

"Why are numbers beautiful? It's like asking why is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don't see why, someone can't tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren't beautiful, nothing is." - Paul Erdos - born on this day in 1913.

N is a number. A portrait of Paul Erdos. 

In the Horncastle Bookshop there are many books that set out to reveal the aesthetics of Mathematics.

 

"Nostalgia is not what it used to be" - Simone Signoret - born on this day in 1921.

Simone Signoret: The Star as Cultural Sign . The Horncastle Bookshop stocks books on various aspects of cinema.

 

"If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful" - William Morris - born on this day in 1834. Thinking Hands: The Power of Labour in William Morris is an interesting recent study of Morris’s thought. In addition to books on Arts and Crafts, the Horncastle Bookshop always has a variety of books on Interior Decoration, Fashion and all kinds of Design.

 

"At every hour of every day, I can tell you on which page of which book each schoolchild in Italy is studying." - Benito Mussolini, who founded the Italian Fascist Party on this day in 1919.

 

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul." - Goethe - died on this day in 1832.

 

"Rident stolidi verba Latina  (Fools laugh at the Latin language)." - Ovid - born on this day in 43BC. A good introduction to the beauty of the Latin language is Carmina Latina: A Songbook of Latin Poetry, which includes an audio-cassette of readings from Ovid and other poets. Books in Latin are always available at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

"Some folk are wise, and some are otherwise." - Tobias Smollett - born on this day in 1721.

 

"unworthy of the poet's corner of a country newspaper. He is all blood, dirt and sucked sugar-stick" - W.B. Yeats on Wilfred Owen - born on this day in 1893. At the Horncastle Bookshop, books by and about the poets of the 1st World War are always on the list of books we want to buy, as, of course, is any book by or about Yeats.

 

"There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness." - Lhama Dhondrub, the 14th Dalai Lama, who fled from Tibet to India on this day in 1959.

 

“When the tea is brought at five o’clock,
And all the neat curtains are drawn with care,
The little black cat with bright green eyes
Is suddenly purring there.”

- Harold Monro - died on this day in 1932. He is remembered for founding the Poetry Bookshop as well as for his own writing. See - Strange Meetings: Poems by Harold Monro. 

 

"Hatred of domestic work is a natural and admirable result of civilization." - Rebecca West - died on this day in 1983.

 

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." - Albert Einstein - born on this day in 1879. As well as our online science and religion lists, we have, on both subjects, many more books at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

"Every man, when he comes to be sensible of his natural rights, and feels his own importance, will consider himself as fully equal to any other person whatsoever" - Joseph Priestley, investigator of de-phlogisticated air, born on this day in 1733. A good outline of Priestley’s work is available in John Malone’s It Doesn't Take a Rocket Scientist -  Great Amateurs of Science. We have a good selection of science books at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

"Dressed in the lion's skin, the ass spreads terror far and wide" - Jean de La Fontaine - died on this day in 1695.  Our online list includes both translations and interpretations of La Fontaine’s Fables; books, which, of course, are also available at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

"We grew up founding our dreams on the infinite promise of American advertising. I still believe that one can learn to play the piano by mail and that mud will give you a perfect complexion." - Zelda Fitzgerald - died on this day in 1948. 

"Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent's mind" - Bobby Fischer - born on this day in 1943. As well as an account of Bobby Fischer’s Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time we always have a selection of chess books at the Horncastle Bookshop. 

"Firstly you must always implicitly obey orders, without attempting to form any opinion of your own regarding their propriety. Secondly, you must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your king; and thirdly you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil." - Horatio Nelson - whose statue fell into O'Connell Street on this day in 1966.

 

"I fear the man of one book." (Timeo hominem unius libri.) - sometimes attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas - born on this day in 1225. (The similar Cave ab homine unius libri / Beware the man of one book is quoted in Isaac D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature without attribution.)

 

"Whenever one group of people is taught to hate another, a lie is created to inflame the hatred ..." - from The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion by Will Eisner, born on this day in 1917. Described as "the father of graphic novels", Will Eisner preferred to call his work 'sequential art'. For his masterly dissection, in this form, of the use of lies to inflame hatred, see The Plot. Customers will always find significant books of sequential art in the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

"I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior." - Hippolyte Taine - died on this day in 1893. Books on cats and philosophers, including  Hippolyte Taine, are always available in the Horncastle bookshop.

 

"If they give you lined paper, write the other way." - William Carlos Williams - died on this day in 1963.

 

"I wasn't born a fool. It took work to get this way." - Danny Kaye - died on this day in 1987. The Secret Life of Danny Kaye is included in our biography list. There are more books on entertainers at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

"The novel is the one bright book of life. Books are not life. They are only tremulations on the ether. But the novel as a tremulation can make the whole man alive tremble" - D.H. Lawrence - died on this day in 1930.

 

“Safe in their alabaster chambers,
Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,
Sleep the meek members of the resurrection,
Rafter of satin, and roof of stone.”

 - Emily Dickinson’s Safe in their Alabaster Chambers was published in The Springfield Daily Republican on this day in 1862.

 

"Nothing is so firmly believed, as what we least know." - Michel de Montaigne, born on this day in 1553. 

"Turn on to politics or politics will turn on you". - Ralph Nader - born on this day in 1934.

 

"An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise." - Victor Hugo - born on this day in 1802. Victor Hugo is represented both on our translated poetry list and a in a wider selection of books at the Horncastle Bookshop. 

“The harp that once through Tara's halls
The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls,
As if that soul were fled … ”

- Thomas Moore – died on this day  in 1852.

 

"I'd rather be a musician than a rock star." - George Harrison - born on this day 1943. Rock stars and other musicians can be found in our music list and there are many more music books at the Horncastle Bookshop. 

"Give me books, fruit, French wine and fine weather and a little music out of doors…” - John Keats – died on this day in 1821. We often have books about Keats on our on-line list and always have books of his letters and poems at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

"The charm of memory is that it is choosy, chancy, and temperamental: it rejects the edifying cathedral and indelibly photographs the small boy outside, chewing a hunk of melon in the dust" - Elizabeth Bowen - died on this day in 1973. Her books are usually available at the Horncastle Bookshop. There is an interesting revaluation of her work in Frances Rose’s On Not Being Able to Sleep: Psychoanalysis and the Modern World.  

 

."All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair –

The bees are stirring - the birds are on the wing –

And Winter slumbering in the open air

Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring.

And I the while, the sole unbusy thing.

Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing."

- Coleridge - writing on this day in 1825.

The Nonesuch Select Poetry and Prose edited by Stephen Potter is probably the best single volume edition of Coleridge. There is a selection of books at the Horncastle Bookshop about Coleridge as well as other editions of his work. 

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire - born on this day in 1694. A good sketch of Voltaire's life and work can be found in the monumental Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. We always want to buy books on philosophy at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

" If there should chance to be any mathematicians who, ignorant in mathematics yet pretending to skill in that science, should dare, upon the authority of some passage of Scripture wrested to their purpose, to condemn and censure my hypothesis, I value them not, and scorn their inconsiderate judgement." - Nicolaus Copernicus - born on this day in 1473.  The life of Copernicus by Ivan Crowe is on our biography list. We have, since the expansion of our premises, increased our stock of mathematical and scientific books at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

" The man who can't visualize a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot."- André Breton - born on this day in 1896. A selection from André Breton is one of the many books of translated poetry on our internet list. We have a good range of poetry books at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

" Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings."- Heinrich Heine - died on this day in 1856.

 

"I often feel that the tableland of sanity upon which most of us dwell, is small in area, with unfriendly precipices on every side, over any one of which we may fall." - Francis Galton - born on this day in 1822.  In addition to our online list of scientists’ biographies we have a wider selection of such books at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

" I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him." - Galileo Galilei - born on this day in 1564. We have a good selection of books on the history of science and all kinds of scientific books at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

"Only Capone kills like that." - George 'Bugs' Moran, Chicago mobster, on the murder of his entire gang on this day in 1929. 'Machine Gun' Jack McGurn is the biography of Capone's hit man, who organized the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. We have a wide selection of true crime books at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

“The Irish, condemned to express themselves in a language not their own, have stamped on it the mark of their own genius ... This is then called English literature." - James Joyce - died on this day in 1941. As well as our online list related to James Joyce we always have more books at the Horncastle Bookshop by or about him.

 

“The Origin of the Species is, without doubt, the book of the millennium” – Steve Jones (in Almost like a Whale) on the work of Charles Darwin, who was born on this day in 1809. We have a good selection of scientific books at the Horncastle Bookshop, including many on Darwin and Evolution. 

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want.” – Sylvia Plath – died on this day in 1963.                   The Jabberwock Books Horncastle Bookshop is closed on Sundays, but open every other day of the week.                  

“The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error.” – from The Life of Galileo by Bertold Brecht, born on this day in 1898. We have a wide selection of scientific books at the Horncastle Bookshop.

 

“Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for?” – Alice Walker - born on this day in 1944. Our emphasis, we hope,  is on good books at the Horncastle Bookshop, rather than on rare books or bargain books or books with no attraction but novelty.

 

“All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time.” -  John Ruskin – born on this day in 1819. We have both kinds of books at the Horncastle Bookshop. Secondhand bookshops are a far better source of books of all time than new bookshops, where the emphasis is bound to be on books of the hour. 

“When the wind is blowing and the sleet or rain is driving against the dark windows, I love to sit by the fire, thinking of what I have read in books of voyage and travel.”  -  Charles Dickens – born on this day in 1812. We have a good selection of travel books at the Horncastle Bookshop. 

"Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."  - Barbara W. Tuchman – died on this day in 1989. History, science and literature are all well-represented in books at the Horncastle Bookshop. 

“…whoever believes in Nature said B. disbelieves in God – for Nature is the work of the Devil.” – Blake on Wordsworth according to the diary of Henry Crabb Robinson who died on this day in 1867.

 

“The greatest university of all is a collection of books." - Thomas Carlyle - died on this day in 1795. Visiting secondhand bookshops is the best way to build a collection of books. The Horncastle Bookshop has newly-acquired stock on the shelves every day.

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