Second hand information?
One of my interests is collecting books, foremost I collect old books concerning archaeology, history, anatomy etc and 1st ed. of old Science Fiction and Horror of such authors as H.P. Lovecraft, M.R. James, and J.S LeFanu etc. Many titles are of more obscure authors who wrote more or less well in the late 19th and early 20th century. Due to this I often find myself in stores for second hand books.
Today I found a little treasure box: The Dead Sea scrolls of the Hebrew University edited by E.L. Sukenik from 1955. I have just skimmed the pages. The edition is in two parts, part one is a book describing the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, a description of some of the scrolls and a transcription of the same scrolls. Part two is facsimiles of the fragments of 58 plates; 1-15 Second Isaiah-scroll, 16-34 & 47 The scrolls of the war of the sons of light with the sons of darkness and 35-38 Thankgiving scroll. The plates are reproductions of the Dead Sea scrolls. And I got all this for 100 Swedish kronor (ca 10€).
Evan though Biblical archaeology normally isn’t my bag I find the discovery of ancient texts enthralling, which is one reason I studied runes and medieval Scandinavian texts for a few years at Stockholm University. If I would have gone in to an ordinary bookstore I would most likely never have bought this book and that is what I like with second hand book stores, I never know what I will happen to find and sometimes I find things that open new perspectives or just gives me a few hours of fun.
//Magnus Reuterdahl
