Sigh, why do professors give a truck load of work for students to do all at the same (I believe they do it on purpose- but no matter). I have been working like a mad woman this past week so much that I was beginning to forget my name- much less that I had a blog I had to write in. So, please forgive me that this is late, but better late than never.
I thankfully survived my presentation. No one threw rotten tomatoes at me or dramatically fell asleep, so I think I can call it a success. I believe I am required to say in this blog entry a little about what my presentation was about (which would be really boring for those that actually paid attention) so here is just a small mix of some of the awesome goodness of information I had :)
- The first Circulating Library was made in 1725 by Mr. Allan Ramsey in Edinburg.
- The 2 most popular of the time were the Minerva Press and Mudie’s Library
- A Circulating Library is one “whose books can be rented or borrowed”.
- Typically held between 1500 and 3000 books (though some had thousands more like Mudie’s)
- Not everyone was thrilled with the idea of these libraries and what the provided for the public. Actually some were entirely against it.
- To join the library was expensive, but much cheaper than buying a book from a bookseller brand new. In today’s money it would close to 100 dollars to buy a book (just like our outrageous text book prices lol), but it would cost about 90 dollars to rent books for a whole year.
- The Library History Database states that in 1850 there was 5,481 Circulating Libraries recoreded
- They helped the rise of the middle class and lower class literacy rates and the reading material availbe. With the Public Library act of 1850 Circulating Libraries slowly started to become extinct but during its time, it did much to spread literacy, equality, and intelligence among its readers.
If you like history and are interested in this topic then I found that our University library has a lot of good information (I wouldn’t bother with the public library up town on this topic for they didn’t even have books on the history of the library in general available there- I think was odd). The internet has good pictures but I felt only the books available at school have information trust worthy. There was a lot of conflicting information on the internet that just confused me. The definition book required for this class has a few good pages about the Circulating Libraries too. That is where I found the quote examples of the people that were against and towards the Circulating Libraries.
Now for my mixed thoughts on Pamela:
I can’t believe it, but I’m really enjoying Pamela after getting into it more. Unfortunately seeing as I have all this pile of school work to do, I have been cramming to finish it. I really dispised this Mr. B completely at the beginning and was really frustrated why he just wouldn’t leave her alone. “No” means “no” man, back off! I actually hated him for the anxiety he was giving Pamela. But surprisingly I am starting to warm up to him and I don’t understand why, because I detested him so. Nothing gets me more streamed then someone forced to do things they are against. I read a bumper sticker once that states ”Hell hath no fury like a woman denied her right to choose” (its kinda stolen from Shakespeare), but I agree completely. I just wished that Pamela stopped fainting so she could kick this Mr. B where it hurts and she could show her fury in person, not just in her writing. She really needed to tell him off and it really bugs me that she didn’t! I knew this book would displease me, for I did not like the way Fantomina was treated,so I knew even before reading this book that I would not like how Pamela was treated as well. But seeing as she was not “hurt” and where I am in the novel now, he is treating her with more care, I can read with less worry for her safety. Like I said I have not finished yet and will be up all night doing so, but I hope that all turns out well for them. I have mixed feelings towards this book- frustrated at the way she acts sometimes, yet totally understand and can relate. I really want to finish- no sparknotes for this one 
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