Book Sounding or Book Dowsing

Apparently some people have not heard of this.  It's called 'book sounding', or 'book dowsing', depending on which one you like better.  You can practice it in libraries, on your shelves or on a friend's book shelves.  You run your fingers (or eyes, depending on rules) along the books almost randomly, until one just FEELS right or stands out in some way that is impossible to deny.  You take that book down, go to a comfortable chair and give it a very good try to read, not just one page like you might at the shelf, but a few chapters.

You might 'accidentally' pick up a book about rope, or growing herbs, or a love story that takes place at the turn of the century, or a zombie child that goes through time.  It really could be anything.  Maybe not accounting or rocketry tables.. put that back, maybe.  It could be your thing.

The point of book sounding is to open your mind and have an adventure.  I also love to do it in 'friends of the library bookstores' and thrift shops.  You NEVER know what you'll find - or does it find you?  For a quarter you may be reading a selection of short stories edited by Isaac Asimov that is no longer in print, or suddenly realize a favorite author wrote something you missed, somehow, and now it is right here in your hand.  It has happened to me.

I wrote this article because a Google search for 'book sounding' showed nothing, and 'book dowsing', still nada, no description of the activity!  But I've seen people do it in real life, in movies - what do they call it?  It is so obviously a vibration thing when they are doing it with their fingers - something calls to the fingertips.

So, go try it.  See what the Universe tosses your way. 

1936 French book, signed by Eileen Fealy and her entire class, perhaps from Wittenberg University, Springfield Ohio?

French 'secondary school' reading book for classroom work.
'Sans Familie', par Hector Malot, Edited with Notes, Exercises, and Vocabulary by Albert L. Cru published by the John C. Winston Company, 1934

Dated inside October 9, 1936 'Eileen Fealy', and signed in front (and back) covers by her classmates/students?

I collect French and German books and primers when I find them for not too much money, and delight in reading them.  This one came to me several years ago through a library sale.  The librarian told me it had been donated to a local language group that now no longer used the library, and had donated their collection to be sold in the bookstore.  I didn't look at the signatures a lot then - and have read bits of the book here and there to improve my translation skills.  Last night, I recognized that there were two sets of names in the book that shared last names 'Clarke' and 'Click' - and Mark said, 'That will probably let you narrow that book down to exactly where it was used, what high school, in what town.'  That was an interesting challenge, and a mystery... and I began to look to see if I could identify anything more of the origin of the book I had been reading - and was once read and cherished quite long ago.

Miss Eileen Fealy drew several pictures in the book, as well - mostly faces and doodles.. she kept dates (her Christmas vacation dates, and a running 'x' off of the days she was in class?)  I wonder if she was the teacher or more likely, a student?  Sadly, I found nothing that could pinpoint who she was... but several other names did come up, during a very short span of years, at the Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio - during the graduation years of 1938 to 1941.  The book is dated 1936, and was published in 1934.   It satisfies my curiosity enough to find five signature names in the same college.. that it was probably used there.

For the record, in case anyone finds this and recognizes any of the names in the future - here are the names I can actually read in the book.  There are about thirty-eight signatures in total - but some of them are too hard to read or have been smeared in the back cover.  There are only a few signatures in the back - so I only photographed the front page.  Several of the signatures also have 'nicknames' in them, adding to the charm of the memory.

Eileen Fealy (or Fialy?)
Virginia Lee Kite ?
Oliver Clarke (in yearbook)
Roger Borohers ? "Butch"
Georgianna Cotter
Jeanne Todd
Geneva Davis "Nevie"
FH McNutt "Squirt" - this name shows up in the online yearbooks as Franklin Holbrook McNutt and FH Mc Nutt interchangeably
Reda Lapinsky (a name I found on the honor roll in 1934 and led me to the yearbooks)
Carl DeWitt "Moocher"
Muriel Jaffa
Janice Gold
Philip Goldberg
Betty Baldwin
Bettee Hornar ? Bettee Horner?
Emily Clarke (in yearbook)
Martha Corry
Jeanne Todd
Myra Click
Elizabeth Click "boots" "jooty" ?
Jeanne "Jinks" Johnson
Anna (R, reed, or ruth, or ?) O'Connor
Martha Compton (in yearbook)
Corra Mae Brooks
Abbie Whitaker
O H B "Oh He's a Bum' (funny)
Isabel Sheperd 'Izzie' (also in the yearbooks)
Betty Rowe
Don Williamson
Mary Louise Lyman
Helen Kohl
Jeanne Lawrence?
Carol Fenton (in yearbook)
Doris Thomas
Billy Morris "alias Willie"
Eunice Bryant
W H Hughes
and three or four more I really can't make a good try at -- maybe Richard Smith, Nancy Tulless? Lorna Fatherty? Saint Broca? 

If anyone has any more information - correction on possible translations of names.. I would love to find out more.  Maybe this will just by some miracle make its way to someone who was in this class that might still be alive - or their son or daughter, and they will get to see the signature.  (I am keeping the book, but publishing this because it is an awesome piece of history and someone else might enjoy it)

The universe continues to surprise me...

A very unique piece of rock
(on a porch chair Ninja cat tore the upholstery off of)

I looked down on my walk with Esme and there it was - looking for all the world like a piece of circuitboard or other man-made item. The first thing I did was turn it over expecting it to be a piece of plastic - but it is chert rock from our driveway. Mark also turned it all over in his hands when I gave it to him - and said 'what in the world - that is worth a picture!' What would you call it, a naturally occurring piece of conundrum? *ducks down before the shoes start flying through the air*. I swear there is a near perfect question mark in there, to top it all off.


My partners in crime, in all their puppyness.

I feel like the day is very early outside - but there is not much I can get done with that time. There are things I can do, of course, but they are not 'big' things... I guess sometimes it is the little things that build together.

Things I would like to get done sometime soon:'
Decide where and plant some more flowers. I saw purple tulips today that spoke to me. Start the tomato seeds for the black prince - the only one we have to start. Make Grandma a simple plank bench in her back yard - hers has fallen to bits. -- I have not mentioned this to her, but consider this a reccommendation? :)

Things I will get done or close to done today:
Sew Esme's sweater together - if there is enough yarn (there was not :(
Wash the towels.
Pick up some toys off of my desk which is swamped in them.
Give Esme a bath. She is filthy from running around outside!