Wednesday 27 October 2010

Gerrans Fund, then and now

The Works of Immanuel Kant in eleven volumes. In German (but not black letter). Purchased from the Gerrans Fund, 1930. These days, we tend to spend the Gerrans Fund on books on art, architecture, bibliography, and women's studies. The rubric states that the Fund is for the purchase of 'luxury' items, outside the normal subject allocation. Has there been a 'dumbing down' of our idea of luxury? Or has the cost of books risen less, relatively, than our purchasing power, so that we can now afford to buy Kant from the subject allocation for Philosophy, and genuinely luxuriously-produced items from the Gerrans Fund?

Friday 15 October 2010

Fraktur - that's rather how I feel myself!

I've reached nineteenth-century German philosophy, all in black letter. Not ideal when you're feeling all bunged up with the tail-end of a cold!