So I said in my personal info that among other things, I loved science and collecting old books. You can always download the information contained in them, but the books themselves are an irreplaceable part of history. Early editions of an old book are the first time that information was made public, the first time people could really learn about important discoveries. As someone who downloads books and music on a regular basis, there's something special about having a physical copy of that moment in history.

I had to carefully cut open my package because it was obvious how old the book was. Inside along with it was a simple note saying "Found this and thought it was kinda cool. Happy Holidays". The cover page read,

Personal History of Lord Bacon from unpublished papers by William Hepworth Dixon of the inner temple Cairo Circulation Library Copywright Edition Leipzig Bernhard Tauchnitz 1861. The Right of Translation is Reserved

Oh man. So among old books, old science and history books are my favorite. I have the Smithsonian proceedings from 1901, but this is now the oldest book I own. And I lived in Cairo for a while, so to link this book through there is even cooler. The book is pretty delicate, and I have to be careful not to damage the spine or pages.

As a lover of science, this gift is just the coolest. I try my best to take a scientific approach to learning and interacting with the world. Bacon is the progenitor of our modern scientific method, and devised some pretty basic fallacies that can prevent people from gathering accurate knowledge.

So not only is this completely cool in terms of being an old book, it's amazingly cool as a part of scientific history. I cannot thank my Secret Santa enough for this wonderful gift.