Laudator Temporis Acti

From an exchange of emails with a friend:

Amicus: "Only a hazy recollection remains of what books I bought in London. All I know is that the binge required recourse to an old ploy at the airport. Heaviest volumes in the hand-luggage; two overcoats – i.e. eight pockets - all stuffed. This time round it was G. M. Young's Early Victorian England volume 1 in the left pocket of outer overcoat, volume 2 in the right. Check-in counter to be approached with hands in trouser pockets so displacing the vast bulk behind the back and cutting down on the tent-like profile."

Ego: "Thanks be to the inventor of pockets. I bought two pairs of walking shorts a while ago, with large pockets to accommodate tree and bird and mushroom and insect identification books, hand lens, etc. I will no doubt look foolish on the trail, but such is the privilege of age."

Amicus: "Since you're always on the prowl for suitable fodder, I was thinking a fine subject for a blog-post might be the hand-in-glove relationship between book and pocket. I've got in front of me some scuffed and weathered well-travelled favourites (boards warped): Bridges' The Spirit of Man, Palgrave's Golden Treasury, Huxley's Text & Pretext, and Herbert Read's The Knapsack. And of course there is too the whole Everyman tribe, 'to be thy guide, in thy most need to go by thy side'."

Several English words for books emphasize their portability. In the following list, the dates refer to the first occurrences of the words in English, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED):

• enchiridion (1541), from Greek ἐγχειρίδιον ("that which fits in the hand," such as a dagger or a little book), defined by OED as "A handbook or manual; a concise treatise serving as a guide or for reference."
  
• handbook (900), "A small book or treatise, such as may conveniently be held in the hand; a manual" (OED).
  
• manual (1445), related to the Latin word for hand (manus).
  
• pocketbook (1617), defined by OED as "A small book, adapted so as to be conveniently carried in a person's pocket."
  
• vade-mecum (1629), literally "go with me," defined by OED as "A book or manual suitable for carrying about with one for ready reference; a handbook or guidebook."

Also of interest are the Latin words pugillares (sc. libelli) and pugillaria, both substantives meaning "writing-tablets" and both formed from the adjective pugillaris = "of or belonging to the fist or hand, that can be held in the hand" (Lewis and Short, A Latin Dictionary). In his famous letter on the ascent of Mount Ventoux (Epistulae Familiares 4.1) Petrarch calls his copy of St. Augustine's Confessions a "pugillare opusculum" (a little work that can be held in the hand).

According to Sir John Hawkins,

Dr. Johnson used to say, that no man read long together with a folio on his table. "Books," said he, "that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all." He would say, "such books form the mass of general and easy reading." He was a great friend to books like the French "Esprits d'un tel;" for example, "Beauties of Watts," &c. &c.: "at which," said he, "a man will often look and be tempted to go on, when he would have been frightened at books of a larger size, and of a more erudite appearance."