Thursday, July 5, 2012

Google Play Books - Hawaii History

A  L  O  H  A !
King David Kalakaua
 of the Hawaiian Islands

  David Laamea Kamanakapuu Mahinulani Naloiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalakaua 

Ruled from February 12, 1874 until his death in 1891
His motto:
"Hooulu Lahui"
 "Let the Hawaiian Race Flourish"












 Hula  celebrating Kalakua
upon his 50th birthday jubilee
  Iolani Palace. 
November 1886 









 Contemporary Street Mural,
 Honolulu



\O-O/


 There are TOO Many books.

Even I wrote one.

Clicking around your blogs
makes the reading
of one book,
hour after hour,
seem hopelessly
old fashioned.

BUT when I was a kid
my town of Philadelphia
seemed full of
Old Books,
hundred-year-old books
that crumbled
in your hand!

I spent lots of time
at Legendary
Leary's Book Store

" Leary's Old Book Store in Philadelphia,
  9 South 9th Street
around 1910. 
 When it was sold out at auction
 in 1969 
it was the oldest used book store 
in the U.S.
 Getting ready for the sale,
 a copy of the Dunlap first printing 
of the Declaration of Independence 
was discovered forgotten and neglected. 
It fetched over $400,000.00.
 Leary's was a great place 
to root around for old books - 
and to overhear the conversations
 of old book men.  "
Books Rare

 " The building consisted of three floors 
and a basement full of books. 
 On the third floor, an opening in the floor
 allowed a view of the mezzanine down below.
Additional books were placed outside
 on shelves on the Leary’s side of the
 [cobblestone! cloudia)
alleyway
 separating it from Gimbels Dept store.
Some provision was made
 to shelter the books
 and the readers
 in the alley way,
 but, most of the time, 
the books and browsers,
 suffered the inclemency of the
 outdoor Philadelphia weather.
Throughout the building, 
numerous used books were everywhere: 
on wall shelves and piled high on tables
 for readers to browse through. 
The policy of the bookstore
 was not to interfere 
with readers and browsers,
 but simply to direct customers
 to their areas of interest if asked. "

" Leary’s heyday
 was during the “Golden Age of Books,”
 a period during the 19th century 
and the first half of the 20th century 
when books were the key source
 of entertainment and enlightenment. "




 How I loved
to find treasures,
 and to read away
 a Summer's afternoon;


Back then,
those afternoons seemed
endless,
 lasting for DAYS!

Old books were cheap,
cheap enough for me to buy,
though I'm ashamed to admit
(all these decades later)
that I also
"borrowed" a few
from Leary's!


Burying myself
in old books
was my 
Safe Place.

Nowadays,
books seem expensive,
and there are
SO MANY
coming out!




Lately, though
I have discovered
a wonderful place
to recall the joy
of old books,
many of them
FOR FREE!

Today's Leary's is
Google Play.
At the top of the 
GOOGLE Page
one of the choices is
"PLAY."

There you may purchase,
read and watch/listen
to films, TV shows,
and Books!

Lots of the historic books
there are FREE!

Lately I have been lost
in Hawaii's past
as written in the 19th
and early 20th Centuries.

 Here is a first-person
(rather Blog-like)
account of 
Kalakaua at the
 opening ceremonies
 of the
 Kingdom's Legislature.
Note the racism
common to that day
in the grudging admiration-

(Tip: hold the Ctrl key
while you tap the + key
to make reading easier.

Holding Ctrl while tapping
the zero '0' key
brings screen back to
your normal setting.
Or click on the photo-copies. )

Published 1888









{      }


From 1918
" One often hears"

Hawaii Past & Present
William Richards Castle



{    }  



Premature lament
for the passing
of "The Hawaiian"
Katherine Fullerton Gerould, 1916




{   }




Their Future Honolulu - My Today
Would Kalakaua
recognize 
his capitol?

Now I understand
how my paradisaical
Home Town
came to be
as it is- 


from 1917:


Thanks for visiting!

                            Warmly, cloudia

Hear the Kalakaua March HERE

17 comments:

  1. I hope the Hawaiian culture can continue to flourish.....but i fear for it.....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh how I miss the 'golden age of books' and those magical bookshops like Learys! Hawaiian history is fascinating through your words Cloudia.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i hope he was not a fasist ..

    ReplyDelete
  4. We taught our son to read using an Atlas, and he's now able to name most of the continents even by its shape; knowing various countries, and last but not least the ABC.

    A couple of hundred books await him in the living-room though ;) Wonderful entry, much felt. Please have you all a wonderful Friday.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can lose myself in a room of books. I can't imagine a store like Learys! How fun! This is why I cannot bring myself to convert to a nook, etc. I lone to turn the pages and just feel the book in my hands. Then I love to place my books on a shelf and refer back to them from time to time!
    I enjoy your history lessons very much! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'd like to go back in time just to visit that bookstore.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm so glad I grew up immersed in books. It made a great impact on my life, and like you Sis--kept me out of a lot of trouble.\\

    I love the way you weave the Culture in and out of your Blog! We always learn something here!

    Awesome post!

    J

    ReplyDelete
  8. YOU folks make me so happy
    the way you seem to enjoy the things we share here.



    MUCH appreciated!

    ReplyDelete
  9. The aroma in the book shops had its own flavor!

    namaste /\ from mumbai
    aloha!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. A pleasure to watch you unveil a book, nice one.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The street mural is enormous. Like it.

    Greetings,
    Filip

    ReplyDelete
  12. yes! the aroma of book shops!!!!


    Thanks dear friends for your visits which mean so very much to me-

    ReplyDelete
  13. Aloha Cloudia, thank you for the link to your blog (via FB). Yes, I am another lover of old books! There used to be a huge used bookstore in my town called Acres of Books and I found many a dusty, long-forgotten book on its shelves over the years. Now I browse the One Dollar Bookstore for my old book fix.

    Sara

    ReplyDelete

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