Books and nostalgia

[Lencoboy]

A bit of a more light-hearted thread.

Recently I have been revisiting some old-ish books in my collection, mostly dating from the 80s and the first half of the 90s, particularly for a bit of escapism, and of course to partly re-live those supposedly 'simpler' pre-Internet times in which they were first published.

A particular favourite in my personal collection right now is 'The Camcorder User's Video Handbook' by Peter Davison, which I had for Christmas in 1993 at the age of 16, and said book was first published earlier that same year.

It's nice seeing all the dedicated 'hardware' devices of the time like 'real' camcorders (of various types and grades), editing VCRs (again of various types and grades), mixers (video and audio), edit-controller devices, and other 'peripherals' like lenses, microphones, tripods, cables, etc, unlike today where personal videos can be created easy-peasy on smartphones which actually outperform the best (analogue) gear of the 90s era, and then easily edited using software on one's own PC or laptop (e.g, Nero).

There is barely any info online about said publication, including its authors.
The book has the code CN 5590 printed on the rear cover just above the barcode, which I guess is the ISBN, or equivalent.

Just interesting to see photographic images of the still-rather cumbersome devices and technologies of the time, plus also the methods/techniques employed in amateur videography back in those heady days of the early 90s era. Also emphasises the concept of 'less is more'.

[Catkins]

When my step-gran died earlier this year, I didn't want much of her stuff, but she had a few old books that I kept. One of them was a thick old book which was as kind of medical book that was fascinating, it had all these suggestions for what you should do to keep your family well and how to treat different things (I'll check what it was called).

There was also a collection of books with movie reviews from the late 50's/early 60's. Wonderful stuff.

[BlueIris]

I've got a few volumes of Pauline Kael's movie reviews. I used to write a film review blog, and I still love reading good critique.

[Lencoboy]

Yes, it's nice to read a lot of these old (pre-21st Century) books just to see how things were done in the lower-tech world of past decades, especially things that many of us take for granted today and have seemingly never had so good or so easy, as in sound and video recording and reproduction, plus still photography.

Kind of 'time-capsules'.

[Lencoboy]

Yes, it's nice to read a lot of these old (pre-21st Century) books just to see how things were done in the lower-tech world of past decades, especially things that many of us take for granted today and have seemingly never had so good or so easy, as in sound and video recording and reproduction, plus still photography.

Kind of 'time-capsules'.

I really feel emotionally attached to that aforementioned 'Camcorder' book from 1993 right now, despite the first half of the 90s not being a particularly good time for me personally, but I still continue to feel a kind of 'bittersweet' nostalgia for certain aspects of that particular time period, especially the photo images in said book that show the fronts of certain shops that were staples of our high street back then that have become casualties of the Internet and an increasingly fickle economy, especially from about 2003 onwards, even though I was generally blasé about them myself at the time.

I know the book is almost 30 years out of date from a technological point, especially as far as today's high-tech digital world is concerned, but I do find something rather comforting about seeing how people made the best use of the old lower-tech, lower-fi gear back in the day because it was all that was available at the time, and from a 'consumer' perspective, hi-band video equipment, such as Hi-8 and S-VHS was as good as it got at the time.

Of course, I would never go back to those old technologies nowadays, as digital can only get better.

[Lencoboy]

Another favourite book of mine that I also feel emotionally attached to is the Reader's Digest Repair Manual (first published in 1972), which my mom bought cheap from a second-hand shop back in the 80s.

Again, despite being outdated and indeed lo-tech, it's quite an interesting and comforting read, and explains stuff in basic, simple step-by-step guidelines, accompanied by clear illustrations, rather than vague gobbledygook.

[Carnation]

I love old books and the classics.
John Steinbeck is one of my favourites.
I like illustrated books too and bought a 19th century book of the body which is amazingly illustrated.
Those film books are so nice to look at catkins.