Show threadHarald KlinkeJun 16, 2025
This post asks: can we estimate the extent of what has disappeared? What does the “dark matter” of book history look like?
#BookHistory #DigitalHumanities #PrintCulture #HungarianHistory #LostBooks
https://translationpatterns.substack.com/p/early-hungarian-books-the-dark-matter
Early Hungarian Books: The Dark Matter

What do our data about print that survives reveal about the early Hungarian books that disappeared without a trace?

Patterns of Translation
seanpm2001 🇺🇦️🇬🇱May 4, 2025
I am looking for the name of a book that was used at school while I am growing up, but I only recall part of the plot. The plot involved a few African American children who went to live with a relative in mid 20th century America. The relative had some connections to the Black Panthers, and the children were ostracized in public at times, one time for picking out a large chicken from a store. I don't have any other details to go off of here. Does anyone recognize what book this is?
#books #lostbooks #tipofmytongue #question
KennethOct 28, 2023
#Obscure #fantasy novel paperback cover, possibly by (surname) Williams, and a one–hit wonder: A gleeful man holding a flower is leading a fantastic procession. Hero's Journey/Bildungsroman motif, bears comparison with A Voyage To Arcturus by David Lindsay & The Pilgrim's Regress by C. S. Lewis. #LostBooks
Of Bookish ThingsMar 22, 2023

Friedman is a tech entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, and one of the people behind the #VesuviusChallenge — a quest to read what was written on #pages of #papyrus that were fused together when #MountVesuvius erupted in AD 79 and now resemble pieces of coal.

They're offering up a $1 million US cash prize to anyone who can "make history by reading an unopened #HerculaneumScroll for the very first time."
#DecipheringText #Text #MachineLearning #AI #History #Archaeology #Scrolls #LostBooks
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/vesusius-scroll-decipher-challenge-1.6785894

Think you can decipher an ancient scroll? You could win a million bucks | CBC Radio

A Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur is one of the people behind the Vesuvius Challenge — a quest to read what was written on pages of papyrus that were fused together when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79 and now resemble pieces of coal. 

CBC
MetaFilterFeb 5, 2023

Book Detective

"There's a growing band of people digging through library stacks and second-hand bookshops in search of lost classics. I'm one of them."

Wobbuffet posted Lucy Scholes' article "Meet the archive moles" about editors surfacing worthy forgotten or overlooked books for reprint, with links to houses publishing recovered works.

https://www.metafilter.com/198153/My-work-feels-more-like-that-of-a-detective-than-an-editor

#books #reading #publishing #classics #lost #editors #reprints #forgotten #LostBooks #ForgottenBooks #RecoveredBooks #OldBooks #vintage #stacks

'My work feels more like that of a detective than an editor'

Lucy Scholes (Prospect, 01/25/2023), 'Meet the archive moles': 'There's a growing band of people digging through library stacks and second-hand bookshops in search of lost classics. I'm one of...