CRAIG CONLEY (Prof. Oddfellow) is recognized by Encarta as “America’s most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation.” He has been called a “language fanatic” by Page Six gossip columnist Cindy Adams, a “cult hero” by Publisher’s Weekly, a “monk for the modern age” by George Parker, and “a true Renaissance man of the modern era, diving headfirst into comprehensive, open-minded study of realms obscured or merely obscure” by Clint Marsh. An eccentric scholar, Conley’s ideas are often decades ahead of their time. He invented the concept of the “virtual pet” in 1980, fifteen years before the debut of the popular “Tamagotchi” in Japan. His virtual pet, actually a rare flower, still thrives and has reached an incomprehensible size. Conley’s website is OneLetterWords.com.
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A Turkish Delight of musings on languages, deflations of metaphysics, vauntings of arcana, and great visual humor.

Found 1,596 posts tagged ‘book’

I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – January 28, 2021 (permalink)

Let there be comfort in knowing that The Stars Are Still There (by Stewart Edward White, 1946).
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#stars #old book
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Restoring the Lost Sense – January 27, 2021 (permalink)

Reading as a workout.  From Le Charivari, 1890.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #books #illustration #brain building
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – January 20, 2021 (permalink)

The phrase "abridged strangeness" is a Googlewhack as of this posting.  From Strangely Enough! (abridged) by C. B. Colby.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#vintage illustration #eye #old book #strangeness
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Rhetorical Questions, Answered! – January 20, 2021 (permalink)

This answer to the answerless question "what is a book?" notes that a book is actually a place and that books, unlike TV or film or stage plays, need our critical imagination.  From The Late American Novel by Jeff Martin and C. Max Magee, 2011
> read more from Rhetorical Questions, Answered! . . .
#books
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Yearbook Weirdness – January 13, 2021 (permalink)

From West Virginia Wesleyan's 1952 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #anthropomorphism #vintage yearbook #yearbook #bookworm #1950s
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Yearbook Weirdness – January 10, 2021 (permalink)

Periodical worms have shorter lifespans than bookworms.  From West Virginia Wesleyan's 1952 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage yearbook #yearbook #bookworm #newspaper #1950s
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Yearbook Weirdness – December 28, 2020 (permalink)

From Mitchell's 1921 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage yearbook #halo #yearbook #big book
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Yearbook Weirdness – December 28, 2020 (permalink)

Yes, do coordinate your clothing to your books.  No, don't toss books on the floor any which way.  From Illinois Woman's College's 1929 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #reading #books #vintage yearbook #yearbook #1920s
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – December 25, 2020 (permalink)

If the war on Christmas continues at its current pace, we'll once again need signposts to find it.  From This Way to Christmas by Ruth Sawyer, 1916.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#vintage christmas #christmas #old book
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Yearbook Weirdness – December 20, 2020 (permalink)

That lamp is fueled by the midnight oil.  From Earlham's 1922 yearbook. 

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #books #vintage yearbook #yearbook #1920s #library #illustration
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – December 18, 2020 (permalink)

Not only is Future Preconditional an extremely rare phrase and wonderful name for a book, but this volume comes in its own paper bag!  By Douglas Woolf.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#book design #book cover #old book #paper bag
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Restoring the Lost Sense – December 16, 2020 (permalink)

From Le Charivari, 1891.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #big book
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Restoring the Lost Sense – December 16, 2020 (permalink)

[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #castle #old book
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This May Surprise You – December 8, 2020 (permalink)

It's unusual to see an author use his birthday numbers as a byline.  From When a Witch Is Young by 4-19-69 (Philip Verrill Mighels), 1901.  Speaking of birth numbers, see our resurrection of the remarkable Astronumerography.
> read more from This May Surprise You . . .
#witch #old book #byline
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Yearbook Weirdness – December 7, 2020 (permalink)

"Don't throw books around. Treat them with respect" (Discovering Careers for Your Future).
From Centenary's 1927 yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #books #vintage yearbook #yearbook #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – December 2, 2020 (permalink)

From Fairies I Have Met by Mrs. Rodolph Stawell and illustrated by Edmund Dulac, 1910.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #fairy #fairy tale #mushroom #old book
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Precursors – December 1, 2020 (permalink)

Eight years before the opening of Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride, there was The Singing Cave by Eilîs Dillon, 1959 (apparently rare -- the softcover is listed at $800 on Amazon!).
> read more from Precursors . . .
#vintage illustration #skeleton #cave #vintage book #book #pirate #pirates of the caribbean
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The Right Word – November 24, 2020 (permalink)

"Exploring the treasure of unknown words in the adult dictionary."  May your own adult vocabulary be unabridged.  From Together, 1964.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#vintage illustration #dictionary #big book
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Yearbook Weirdness – November 21, 2020 (permalink)

Bookworms are actually made of readers.  From Wake Forest's 1912 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage yearbook #yearbook #bookworm #illustration #1910s
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Staring at the Sun – November 18, 2020 (permalink)

We visited the land of frozen suns, and the locals all thought it was a gorgeous day and were getting ice cream cones, and we were like, "But it's effing freezing!"
> read more from Staring at the Sun . . .
#sun #vintage book #book #frozen sun
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