Inauguration Day for BoOK

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First, thank you to everyone who sent well-wishes and positive vibes for the inaugural meeting of the Bibliophiles of Oklahoma. We had a wonderful first meeting. We could have used some better luck though. By Thursday morning, we had 7 or 8 coming "for sure" and 3 or 4 "I'll try or maybe". So, potentially up to 12. I expected six and thought that was realistic. We actually only had... three. Including me. At the end of last week, an official flu epidemic was in its last throes in Oklahoma. That knocked out 2. After that, our luck ran downhill.

If three of anything is a collection, then three bibliophiles can make a society. You, dear reader, know my interests. I won't bore you with more on that. The two other first members of BoOK are fascinating gents. Dr. RB collects books on archaeology related to his specialty. A born collector and one of the good guys. Dr. KH insists he is not a collector (RB argued "If you have a room just for books in your house, you're a collector") but has written 22 books with the latest due soon from Oxford Univ. Press. It is a literary biography of Thomas Jefferson. I wonder if I can score a review copy (hint, hint)? He has also published bibliographies of the libraries of two major American figures. We passed a wonderful evening with loads of bookly talk. No, bookly is not a word, but I'm not too uppity to use it. At one point I relished hearing "Now, did the 1787 Paris edition have the map...?" Amongst us, we had the answer. Well, the bibliographer did. Beautiful. I supplied the evening's show-and-tell, but I may hold it in reserve and re-run it when we have more people. It is an object that has stumped me and the rest of the Bibliophiles of Oklahoma. Both of them.

So, come see this thing, and meet some delightful people, and me. Our next meeting will be 7 pm, Thursday March 27th. I appreciate it if you let me know if you can come, so we can plan ahead (chairs, tables, etc.), but it's OK to just show up!

Photo found on flickr: Uploaded on July 9, 2006 by zen.