"Let's get started planing" or "The W-Questions"

The idea being in my head, I started "advertising" the blog to my goodreads-friends yesterday. Hopefully one or the other will – from time to time – check in to see how my first trial as a blogger goes.

After the messages were out and the blog is now known to the outside world, I immediately started to pose the W-Questions (Note to myself: Next time, first start planning, then advertise!!).

As the start date is already set on January 1st, the When already answered itself.

To answer the Why you just have to scroll back to yesterdays post.

That basically leaves us with:

Where to start?

and

Where to get the books?

Question 1 seems quite easy: Let’s get off at the beginning. That means of course the first book awarded the Prize. According to the official list this would be

Julia Ward Howe

by Laura E. Richards and Maude Howe Elliott

Being awarded in 1917, that leads right to question Nr. 2. There are quite a few reprints available on Amazon. One of the shops even offers a Kindle-Edition! Abebooks offers a two-volume- first edition but guess what, it’s 50 Euros!! (for those readers that are not so familiar with Europe’s chaos-currency: That equals about $ US 68 or $ CAN 73). That’s kind of a pricy start. Perhaps I should call uncle Santa to bring a gift certificate. But even then... The books ship from the US, so I am not sure, they will get here in time.

Next idea: Public Libraries!
But damn!! According to Karlsruhe Virtual Catalogue (by the way a very good instrument for searching libraries ‘round the globe), the next library that has the book available is the one of the University of Tübingen, but they don’t lend…

Question of the day:
Should I start spending money on a “real” copy or will the Kindle-Edition for only 2,34 Euro (USD 3,20; CAD 3,40) suffice?

P.S.: If there is anyone out there Who knows where to get rare books for reasonable prices, just let me know!