This week, Ailsa’s Travel Theme has been books- and I am just squeezing this post in before the theme changes! I had intended to create an entirely new Still Life with Books…but it didn’t happen.
So here’s one from a while ago, given the monochrome treatment:
Old books
I love books, for some reason especially old books. there is nothing like the weight of a book in the hand, the feel of the pages being turned, even the musty scent of an older book…who has held it, read it, discussed it in earlier times?
See more books at Ailsa’s here.
WordsVisual 
beautiful use of shadow
Thanks, Sonya!
Love it.
Thanks!
Great image, Sue. I also love that musty smell you get in a secondhand bookstore .
Ah, I used to love browsing secondhand book shops! Back in the late ’80s I was working near Twickenham, and there were 7 such shops as I recall….these days you rarely come across one. I shall have to take a trip to Hay on Wye sometime….
I love old books
😀😀
I too like old books and I can still remember the smell of the leather (pseudo leather?) bound volumes in the tiny Thoughts Corner Library when I was a child. My most recent experience of oldish books was a foray into the 1913 minutes book of our local council – a beautiful hefty volume with marbled endpapers and an embossed cover. See how evocative your photo is? Is that handwriting part of the book, or one of those lovely additions that reveal owners? I love your still lifes: care taken of every element including the background.
Well, it appears I have done evocative in the two images I posted yesterday! Jude went back to the birth of her firstborn in the previous post, and now this has brought back memories for you! The writing in this old bible I found in the loft of my house when I was clearing it was notes made by one of it’s owners. I’m glad you appreciate my care in creating backgrounds! Alas I am going to find it more difficult where I am now…..
I totally agree and these are very well photographed.
Thanks, Gilly, glad you like this one….more traces of the past, but a bit happier than the last one 😀
Sue, I love this photo. The composition, texture, and the way it made me wonder, just as you mentioned, about who has touched and read it before.
Thanks, Lucile! I think I am getting to grips with the Still Life!
You’re welcome, Sue. 😀
My latest post (Silent Sunday) is one of my best Still Lifes yet, I think!
There were still quite a few old bookshops around Charing Cross Road, and the surrounding alleyways when I lived in London.I enjoyed looking around them, and always value the look and feel of a book above the electronic equivalents. Your photo captures that perfectly.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thanks, Pete! Glad you enjoyed this
You are so good with your still life images Sue, they do talk to me about the past, a slower and more gentle time
Thank you, Pauline – my past was slower and gentler, but I doubt anyone who has lived through war would agree?
Love the nostalgic mood you created with these antique books…
Thanks…nostalgic indeed!
Lovely composition and lighting. Very emotive.
Thank you!
Smashing picture Sue!
Thanks, Adrian!