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December 13, 2006

Local Books - the history and litriture of a socially and geographical contained people

After writing the answer to the Q&A on "Japan Today and Tomorrow", I got to thinking about the social implications of books.

Books can be used to help move a country in a particular way. Whether its banning them or making sure that they say a specific thing.

Then today just because I was thinking about it, when my friend received a book from his brother as a Christmas present about his hometown area in Texas the 2004 Christmas snow. I decided to write about local books.

Local books contain the history, folklore, customs, and social practices of a region. They can be a what, who, why, where, and when to help guide people moving into or through an area. A well done book can tell how times have changed. And can fill in some of the generation gap for those that may have lived there all their lives.

Being in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains and only about a 100 or so miles from the Adirondacks, I get to see many books that has to do with local history or traditions. How different the two regions are even though they are both in New York, and yet how similar they are.

Many of these books are self published or published by small obscure independent publishers in the authors area and have short print runs. These books aren't just relegated to local history or folklore but also include cookbooks, craft and hobbies, event, and even some tour guides that are written by privet, commercial and municipalities authors.

The older they get the harder it can be to find them. Of course the market can be small too. But they can be a boon to those that want to know why do they think about that, like that.

Posted by derstaffo at December 13, 2006 02:55 PM

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