Although that may well be the destiny of some, not all books are designed to spend their lives snug and secure on collectors' bookshelves. Anyone who has ever consulted a birder's field guide, or a restaurant guide, or a travel guide, knows that many books are published to be carried about on one's person :
All such books -- the publication of which date all the way back to the dawn of printing in Western Europe -- are known collectively as vade mecums.
The singular Latin phrase, vade mecum, translates into English as "goes with me." In a general sense, it refers to any item one normally carries about on one's person -- car and house keys, for example. But in a bibliophilic sense, the phrase refers specifically to [a] small book such as a guidebook, handbook, or manual meant to be carried about, used during the Middle Ages by physicians, astrologers, and tradesmen for quick reference and computation. Often suspended from a girdle or belt:
The term survived the Middle Ages as a shorthand way of designating any book normally carried about on one's person for ready reference (thus distinguishing it from small format fiction). Although most folks probably have encountered vade mecums designed primarily for recreational use...
...in fact they have for centuries been published for a wide variety of occupations as well:
Anyone collecting these small ready references needs much patience and a fair amount of money, since the earliest examples are quite scarce in anything approaching Fine condition (having seen, as was intended, hard daily use). More recent examples, however, are readily available in the marketplace....
Modern examples are quite easily added to one's bookshelves, although they often do not identify themselves with the Latin phrase. Look, instead, for words like handbook, guide, field guide, pocket book, etc., somewhere in the title:
Vade mecums make an interesting addition to book collections that are focused on specific vocations and avocations, although some folks collect earlier examples simply as exemplars of particular book arts (girdle bindings, for example). For certain types of book collecting (e.g., travel guides), vade mecums might easily comprise the bulk of one's collection....
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