Horsebucket? (1 Viewer)

mjp said:
It makes you (me) wonder about literary translations - how many original intentions are lost.
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I'm working on one now. It's a fine line, and it's a bitch. Fidelity to the original text is all well and good, but nobody wants to read something that flows like shit. And I've only ever handled prose. My hat's off to anyone who translates poetry.
 
jordan said:
i got mine yesterday... it's beautiful! i like the manually typed pages- it makes every page look like a letter.

it's a birthday present for rubyred, actually, so don't tell her anything about it! i told her not to read this thread.
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i honestly did not read this thread till now - i knew i was getting carol's book but i didn't know a thing about it and i really did want to be surprised on my birthday... and i was!

carol, i LOVE your book, it's beautiful.
 
reason #721 why I hate the post office:

horse1.JPG horse2.JPG
horse3.JPG horse4.JPG

but otherwise, the book is beautiful.
 
that's the thing, it was well packed. I made a sweater and a pair of gaucho pants out of all the bubble wrap. but the box looked like the post office tied a string to it and attached it to the back of the truck and dragged it all the way across North America.

thanks for the kind offer, perhaps too kind, so maybe I can chip in some more to offset your costs?

let me know.
 
The book may be able to be repaired without too much trouble. If the box can be replaced, then it may not be a total loss.

Yes, it is painful when you bust your ass for art and then someone destroys it with their carelessness.

Bill
 
yes, I was pissed. my wife saw me come steaming up the stairs with the beat-up shipping box and said 'uh oh.'

uh oh indeed.

and what really pisses me off is that I got copy #9. 9 is my favourite number.
 
the box itself might be beyond repair, but i ~think~ (disclaimer: I AM NOT A BOOK ARTS CONSERVATIONIST) that if you lightly dampened some paper towels, layered them with some DRY paper towels along each page and used a bone fold to rub out the creases, maybe that could work. i will see if i can get hold of my best friend who IS an actual conservationist. alternatively, if the creases aren't on any text or image you could try ironing them out: put the iron on its lowest setting, cover the book with a clean towel/layers of paper towels and briefly/gently press the pages, performing frequent checks on the progress.
 
Sounds reasonable.

Bill, is that what you had in mind when you mentioned it could be fixed? All suggestions are welcome.
 
mjp said:
All suggestions are welcome.
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yes, I'd rather fix this copy than have Carol send me another one. the book itself isn't in that bad shape. the box, however, is pretty dented/wrinkled and has a small tear. the wraparound band is fairly good.
 
double-posting here....

just wanted to say something that might have got lost in my anger at the post office:

it's a great book. funny and honest and odd. the good kind of odd.

really liked the "If only change were easy," "HORSEBUCKET!" and International House of Pancakes dog pages.

and Carol's business card is very cool. I might have to [STRIKE]steal[/STRIKE] borrow that idea.
 
the other thing i would add is: PROCEED WITH CAUTION. i can't emphasise this enough. only dampen the paper towels the slightest bit, and don't let them come into contact directly with the book. i actually think doing this, combined with the iron trick, could be a really good fix.
 
I would try to iron it on a medium setting without using any water first. Then slowly up the heat. Water scares me around books. Usually you have to wet the whole paper, so Justine is right, you want the slight moisture without any actual water.

I guess that the first thing that I would do is to put it under a heavy weight for a couple days. A stack of books would work.

Bill
 
in the future you might want to sandwich the book between two pieces of thin masonite cut to size.

not worth risking damage with something like that.
 
My understanding was that the book was well packed. There is no amount of special packing that you can do it someone crushes the box.

Bill
 
I should have jumped in earlier, but I've had my head up my ass....

I just want to say that you are welcome to try to repair the book if you wish, but I have no problem sending out another. I happen to have had that lower number 9 around, as I was saving it for someone that wound up not buying it. Maybe it was meant to be??? A fresh one will be in the 40s I think (I'll have to check) but I digress...

I have no problem sending out another because this whole thing is MY FAULT! If I knew how to charge for international shipping in the first place, I wouldn't have cheaped out at the post office and sent this thing at media rate, which is why it probably arrived the way it did. It's because I didn't want to pay for Priority Insured to Canada and so I risked it and took the cheap route (relying on my good packaging). A lot of good that did, eh? It was moronic, really.

Nevertheless, please don't sweat it too much. Why don't you see if you can actually iron it back to life. If so, great! I'll send you a new box for it (Priority). If you can't, send it back to me and I will send you a new one. How does that sound to you? Deal?
 
Carol, I think I'll keep this one as is. the book itself is in repairable shape and I got to rant at the post office, so I'm happy now.

thanks for the offer, though. it's very considerate.
 
Well, so much for lucky number 9. Of course it is now the most famous copy of Horsebucket. Congratulations on that.


Yes, Carol you are very generous and a fine person to make that great offer.
 

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