During long transits across the Pacific and quiet lulls in combat zones, these servicemembers had little in the way of distraction, but they did have a book in their pocket. Eventually they opened them. Soon they would devour them, trade them like currency, and report them to be “as popular as pinup girls” — just about the highest form of praise possible from a young soldier.
They'd tried to supply books in WW-I, but that proved difficult. Standard editions weren't very portable, and the books were volunteer donations.(*)
I remember seeing one or two of them, umpteen years ago. There's quite a list, and it doesn't look like anybody brought a single vision to the collection--or a censor. I assume most disintegrated long since.
An anecdote or two suggests that books are still quite popular in informal libraries (X brings a few books, reads them, leaves them for whoever), though I gather video games are also common.
(*) Donations... Back in '63 a number of churches donated books for the library of a Baptist boarding school in Liberia. I remember the attitude of resignation of the missionaries who sorted through the pile that arrived. Quite a few books were water-damaged, many were obsolete, falling apart, irrelevant (random latin textbooks?) -- one book (sent for an African school, recall) was a glamorized history of the KKK.
No comments:
Post a Comment