Books

I enjoy reading books and collecting books - really two quite different activities. The reading is more related to the art of the novel, while the books I collect are usually more of cultural than literary significance - turn of the century children's books, project and handycraft books, and other artifacts of a lost culture (America at the turn of the century).

Some of my other pages touch on this, such as The Hobby Spirit, which takes a look at the way hobbies and home improvement projects are presented in the 30s-50's. Books and magazines from this time are almost like artifacts from a lost civilization. The roles of men and women in family life, the expectations of children, and the style of an ideal life are quite different than today.

Links and Examples

• The Unofficial Tom Swift Home Page - The thing I like about this series is its overt obsession with technology, and that the author shows that it comes from ingenuity and hard work. They aren't timeless stories, but they reflet a certain audacity that is appealing. The closest analog I'm familiar with is the Johnny Quest TV series (1964), though in these stories, Johnny is not the inventor, he is simply along for the ride. The Alvin Fernald series (also from the 60's) by Clifford Hicks also contains a similar love of gadgetry, but it doesn't dare to dream on the scale of Tom Swift. There are numerous "pulp" stories in this style from the 20's through the 40's as well, but .
  • Tom Swift Sr.
  • Tom Swift Jr.
• A rather enormous collection of links to other Tom Swift pages.
• A Gallery of Tom Swift Space Books with discussions and comparisons to other fictional rockets.
• A very nice overview of all the Tom Swift Sr. and Jr. books with nice images of cover art.