S5: Modern Voyages of Discovery, Vol. 2.

This submission was actually not so much a submission for the blog as it was a donation of a book.

At least it was small...

Book: Modern Voyages of Discovery, Vol. 2

Submitted by: Random kid.

Caught up in the moment of watching others in the store use the machine, a lil boy of twelve or so put in his toonie and received this boring-looking tome. He was not pleased. I’ve seen this happen once before where a mother and her two elementary school-aged kids ended up playing the Biblio-Mat slots. She received a book on flowers, her son received a book on horses, and her daughter received a book on accounting in the early 1900’s. This boy that received Modern Voyages of Discovery, Vol 2 didn’t have the same disgusted look, though, and instead of sulking away, he just handed it me and said he didn’t want it.

At least it looks nice on a bookshelf.

Funny enough, this pocket-sized book actually turned to be pretty interesting upon closer inspection. The weathered indigo cloth cover looks fairly mundane but the edges have a faded psychedelic pattern that may have been metallic at one point. 

Hopefully I don't get mercury/lead/copper poisoning.

Opening it up, the 356 pages are in amazing condition as it turns out the book was printed in 1830. 

The only illustration in the whole book.

Written by a Rev. Dionysius Lardner who also had enough suffixes to fill out a dozen business cards, it is the second volume of Modern Voyages of Discovery, which recounts all the important journeys and discoveries of the new world. Flipping through it, I’m going to guess it’s pretty much a collection of different conquests and “liberations”.

Half those titles could've been made up and I would never know.

Anything with Ponce de Leon can't be all that boring.

It's not conquest, it's "liberation".

Sadly, if the kid had actually kept this book, I think he would’ve actually enjoyed it since it reads very similar to The Swiss Family Robinson. Just goes to show that you can’t always judge a book by its cover. (Sometimes you need to look at the edges as well.)

Received an interesting book from the Biblio-Mat? Submit it to submit@therandombookmachine.com