Published in Caledon Living, summer 2007
     Two books have been selected as worth considering this summer. The first is surprisingly easy and compelling to read. The second is written by a scholar and farmer who resides in the heart of Caledon. If you have time this summer to lounge with a book, dip into these.

Jacquard’s Web
By James Essinger
     Joseph-Marie Jacquard was a silk weaver who made a significant invention around 1799. He created a loom that wove intricate patterns in brocade fabric at an unprecedented rate, through the use of punched cards to control every row of weaving.     The Jacquard loom used the punched cards automatically, so that only one weaver was needed to work the machine, and any image or pattern could be created.
     Author James Essinger explains the significance of the Jacquard loom, and traces its influence to today’s computers and even the World Wide Web, which he claims could be called Jacquard’s Web.
     “The argument at the very heart of this book [is] that in essence a computer is merely a special kind of Jacquard loom,” declares Essinger.
     Written in an accessible, lively style, this book shows the evolution of computers in an entertaining, suspenseful way.
Oxford University Press paperback 2007, $ 19.95.

Horses in Society
By Margaret E. Derry
     Caledon resident Margaret E. Derry has written an important academic work that documents horse breeding practices and marketing trends in Canada, the U.S and Britain between 1800 and 1920.
     With chapters dedicated to the light horse, heavy horse, farmer’s horse, horses for war and governments’ efforts in breeding, this book is more suited to scholarly research than entertainment for the general public.
     This work follows two other of Derry’s books on animals and culture, one on cattle breeding and another on cattle, collies and Arabian horses. As well as writing scholarly works,  Derry is a history professor at the University of Guelph and works as an artist and breeder of purebreed cattle at Poplar Lane Farm.
University of Toronto Press, 2006, $ 60.

By Gloria Hildebrandt