A SERENDIPITOUS TREASURE

Monday, May 04, 2015

Sorting through boxes of books trying to decide which ones to keep and which ones to get rid of I made a wonderful discovery. I discovered I am the owner of a 1937 copy of Dale Carnegie's FIVE MINUTE BIOGRAPHIES. 

I am amazed at my surprise. Why? Because when it comes to books I have a great memory. I do not have a filing system for my many books and yet I can locate any book quickly. And it is a rare thing for me to forget when and where I acquired a book. Especially one I value as much as this one.

One of the first books I read as a teenager was Dale Carnegie's HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE. My brother gave me a copy of the book and asked me to read it. I wasn't interested in reading it but I'm glad I did. I still have the book and have read it many times.

I like to read biographies and I especially like the ones in this book because they are brief. And I like the way Carnegie writes. He is a great story teller and his book is filled with great stories about interesting people. I love the titles he gives to each one.
Titles like: The Missionary Who Got On The Wrong Train--And Became A Famous Magician; Two-cent Newspapers Bought Him Castles In Spain, Cuckoo Clocks, And Egyptian Mummies;He Was Ashamed Of Having Written Two Of The World's Greatest Novels; He Was Shot In The Breast But He Kept Right On With His Speech;The "Tough Guy" Who Went Through High School In Three Months And Wrote Fifty-One Books In Eighteen Years.

I was three years old when this splendid books was first published.
The price $1.00. To me it's a treasure.