Extra-Illustration

Extra-Illustration.....It's a very old-fashioned thing to do really.  Does anyone else ever do this anymore or is it just me?

I'll get interested reading a memoir or history of some sort but then I'm stopped by something that isn't explained, a word I don't know, a scene I can't understand.  When that happens, I have to stop.  I can't just glide past the fact that I don't know what a type of ship looks like, what happened to the writer later on.....

What exactly was the food he was eating?

What does a building look like?

Where is he on the map exactly?  Does this relate to other people in other books I've read?




When he mentions products and advertisements, I wonder what they look like.....

I can't be there with an author but I'm always sure that I can understand the situation better and that I can imagine more clearly.  Sometimes that means a little extra footwork if the publisher hasn't done his job and illustrated things that he should have done or added explanatory footnotes that can be really very necessary.  And I enjoy ferreting out the extra facts.  I make notes all over the pages, too.  Books I like often end up a very personal sort of mess, and they become really mine.

Not every book is as stuffed as this little memoir is--I have to keep the poor thing closed with a ribbon now, and I've added a cautionary note should anyone else be tempted to open the pages because all sorts of bits and pieces would come fluttering out.  

I finished this book months ago but every now and then I come across another nugget of information that I want to add--for me, that's part of the pleasure of reading.   And it means that a book has really reached across time to teach and to share.