Not an easy prompt for me this one. I mean both that it isn’t easy for me to come up with a shot, but also that the idea of the prompt is distressing to me.
I did have five Billy bookshelves fully stuffed, with plenty more books around the house, but that all changed when we disposed of the house. I had to let my books go. Some were sold, others gifted, still more were given away.
There was real distress. ALL of my Folio hardbacks gone, just like that. I had been collecting them for years whilst I was still working, knowing full well that I would not be able to buy them when I retired. I was hoarding my reading for my retirement years. And what happened? Threw it all away, to go travelling!
My reading these days is overwhelmingly via Kindle. I have one book open in my actual Kindle, another in the app on the phone, a third via the app on my tablet. I haven’t yet got around to setting up Kindle Reader on the new Windoze laptop… but I will. Why have only one book open at a time, if you can have four instead?
Yes, it is not the ideal experience, either for the actual reading, or for browsing the Library “shelf,” but it must do, and is better than having no available reading at all.
I do have a handful of paperbacks on board, picked up from various book exchange shelves found on our travels. Most towns here have them, with books stacked in little wooden cupboards, old phone kiosks, even refrigerators. I always stop to browse their shelves and to photograph those that are more than usually picturesque.
If only we were back at Base right now, where Les Prairies has the most astounding free lending/exchange Library. Shelf after shelf of books to browse, plus a comfortable corner in which to nestle and read. It’s wonderful, and very well tended by Rob, whose idea it was, I believe, to establish the resource (- the same Rob who caretakes our static van for us when we are away.) I could find any number of shelves in there to photograph. But we are not there, we are elsewhere at this time – we are parked up just outside Rouans.
Obviously this prompt required me to walk out into Rouans to find their book exchange. I did. I couldn’t find one! Can it really be one of the few French towns with no book swap!
Now, I do have many bookshelf photos in my archive, but I was determined that for AB this year, I would take a new photograph daily. And that’s how we ended up with my boring old Kindle. Sorry.
However, I don’t think that my AB rigour should prevent us from seeing something more interesting. Here are “a few that I did earlier.”
