MAKING BOOK ON IT

in the story, the great flood is mentioned.

a bookstore.) It is also the oldest continuously operating bookstore in the world and home to the Moravian University student bookstore. Bethlehem was a steel town, but it also was a ‘Christmas’ town, and way back then, the bookstore offered only religious books. Later, children's books were added and now, of course, the store stocks any book a reader might want. By the way, there is a ghost in the store that is often seen by customers.

hAvE yoU rEAd Any good books lately? Ever read the very first book ever written? It was carved on stone tablets in ancient Mesopotamia in the 3rd century, and it bears the name, Epic Of Gilgamesh–written in poetry, telling the story of King Gilgamesh.

Stone tablets were used until the Chinese discovered a way of making paper. Books as we know them today originated in the church, with the monks laboring on those books, carefully writing the text. Then in 1448, Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press and the first book he printed was the Bible. When I visited Germany, I made a point of seeing the Gutenberg Bible.

Books continued to be religious in content, but as time passed, ‘authors’ came to be, and their stories were published. Book stores were established, and people bought books! This, of course, took some time.

The largest bookstore in America today is Powell’s legendary bookstore (established in 1971) in Portland, OR; the Barnes and Nobel in New York City, 5th Avenue, is almost as big. The first bookstore in Dallas was Cokesbury's, brought to us by the Methodists. Barnes and Nobel came much later!

I remember as a child we had ‘book parades’ on Saturday. We would dress as our favorite character from a book and parade down Main Street. Why not? It was during WW II; gasoline was rationed and there was no traffic.

Small bookstores still survive and are fascinating. I just finished reading Once Upon A Tome by

Oliver Darkshire. The author claims this memoir is "the misadventures of a rare bookseller." One of the appealing stories told in this book is that of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, published by a man in England who embedded jewels into the cover of the book, and it was listed as the most expensive book in the world. A noted bookseller in America (Gabriel Wells) bought it, and it was shipped to the US. The book missed the intended ship but was safely entrusted to a luxury ocean liner making its maiden voyage to the US, the Titanic. This rare book remains at the bottom of the ocean to this day.

One small bookstore in Dallas I remember was Harper's Book Store in Deep Ellum. Some years ago, my mother and I were in Harper's when a lady, friend of my mother marched in, "Mr. Harper, you have sold me a Yankee Book. I want my money back!" Obviously, she was a true Southerner, still fighting the war, and wouldn't accept the fact that the South had lost. Mr. Harper graciously returned her money. Please visit your nearest bookstore or library, pick up a book, and read it. I guarantee pure pleasure. n

Like the epic poems of Homer, it probably originated in the oral tradition before it was written. The plot is rather thin: The king befriends a savage who is tamed by a prostitute and then killed by the hero—the king! Of course, the gods are upset and plan to kill the prostitute, but the king saves the day. He also discovers he has eternal life! The prostitute is saved, and somewhere

The oldest bookstore in America is in Bethlehem, PA. It was founded in 1745 and called the Moravian Book Shop. (The Moravian Church had appointed Samuel Powell of the Church’s Crown Inn on the south side of the Lehigh River to operate

Rose-Mary Rumbley has written three books about her native city – Dallas. She has also written “WHAT! NO CHILI!” and a book about the 300th anniversary of the invention of the piano. She has appeared on the stage at the Dallas Summer Musicals and at Casa Mañana and was head of the drama department at Dallas Baptist University for 12 years. Today she is on the speaking circuit and teaches drama classes at Providence Christian School. Her loving views of Texas history appear in every issue of rosetalksdallas@aol.com