Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Random




When I'm scanning the books on my shelf, the French titles on the spines read from the bottom up while the American ones are read from the top down. And yet in both languages, you read from left to right. I guess life's just like that some times.

9 comments:

Starman said...

Who says the French always have to be different? BTW - those comments from Robb are actually from me.

Rachael said...

Actually, the spines on British books also read from the bottom up, maybe it's a European thing.

Thank you for writing such a great blog, I read it everyday and it has given me lots of inspiration and ideas during my first few months in Paris.

debbie in toronto said...

love Paris to the Moon....great book

Turi Becker said...

All the books in Spanish in our library have the spines reading from the bottom up. Maybe it's just American books that are weird...

Kristal said...

anglo-saxon printing habits are different to the European of Latin ancestry... Romanian printing rules for books are just like the French ones.

SjW said...

Hmm Rachael all my British books read top down.. I've never come across bottom up books, as in France!

Interesting peculiarity though - it seems a little strange to us Anglos, but not as strange as reading books back-to-front as they do in China/Japan. But of course it's all about what you're brought up with!

Barrett said...

That is interesting. I guess Americans (and Brits) are right tilters and the French are left tilters. I never would have noticed that.

Merry Christmas! Love your blog!

Relle said...

I discovered this a few months back also...as I was trying to put right our book shelf which is totally out of control jam packed..and through my frustration of putting them right...saw the pattern you mention!! Check out the new cook book shop Librairie Gourmande - 92 rue Montmartre - 75002..two floors dedicated to cooking...even has an english section!

Anne said...

Relle: Thanks for the recommendation.

Lisa and Rachael: Thanks for making my day!

Related Posts with Thumbnails