I always liked old books, they convey a special feeling to the reader. It is like holding a historical artifact that tells you the stories of its time.
I was assigned to become friends with the book called “L’ Architecture Françoise Des Bastimens Particuliers“ compiled by Louis Savot. The author was a french medical practitioner with wide-ranging interest including numismatics and color theory.
My thoughts about this project changed from one task to another. I was surprised when I first heard that we would get assigned books and have to make friends with them. It was very curious what the tasks would be like. I thought we had to read at least a part of the book. So I was a little afraid when I received a book written in French. A language in which I don’t know a single word. But in hindsight, I have to admit that this has been an interesting and unique experience.
The first big leap towards this friendship was a visit to the Stiftung Bibliothek Werner Oechslin. It was very interesting to take a closer look at the book. The library had a special atmosphere. It was a place where I was surrounded by a huge amount of literature with history that gave a sense of special closeness to them. In the book I received, there were several drawings that looked like plans and schemes of structures. As I flipped through the pages of the book, I was not able to completely understand what he was trying to express with these drawings because of my language barrier.
The following tasks were fairly simple to complete. I was lucky to have gotten a book, that was rather easy to get acquainted with. I definitely got a useful experience working with the programs and found the result of text analysis interesting.
The last task was quite unexpected for me. I think this is a pretty logical end of the exercise, but I was expecting something less playful. Besides, thanks to task 5, which involves working in groups, I was also able to get a little acquainted with other books. This is like to become friends with our friends ‘ friends.
In conclusion I would like to say that I undoubtedly will feel more comfortable working with older books in the future.