This photo challenge is actually quite a useful meditation on perspective. I had thought about my options in taking up this challenge, ranging from skipping it altogether because it’s not an obligation, to spreading it out over a whole week to give me time to find something I love dearly enough to photograph it on purpose. I had thought about visiting the place where Steve & I had our first date, Glacial Park, while on my way to visit my kids back in Illinois. That is a place dear to my heart, and closer to being worthy of Jeff Sinon’s incredible nature photos of New Hampshire (I’m a big fan and follower. Do check him out!). But it would mean not posting until at least a few days from now. I browsed around the Internet for a while and lit upon a few threads that interested me. What is it that catches my attention? Perspective. I read a bit about Marfan syndrome. Ever meditate on how perspective changes quality of life and the level of fear you feel about something potentially life-threatening? I read about an American couple jailed in Qatar under suspicion of murdering their adopted daughter. The perspective on adoption is quite different in Muslim countries. How you think and feel about something is altered dramatically based on where you stand. I began to take that idea closer to home.
My partner, Steve, owns and operates an online book business. I might consider Scholar & Poet Books to be the “other woman” in our relationship. I don’t feel about her the same way that Steve does. To him, she represents his autonomy; she is a huge financial asset, and endlessly fascinating. To me, she is a dominating presence that crowds me out of closet space and Steve’s attention. She is also somewhat boring to me, as she doesn’t touch or speak. But I would like to make friends with her. I would like a different perspective on her. So I chose her for my subject.Â
I don’t know if you feel you only get one shot at life, one shot at any given problem. I do know that there are always at least two ways to take it on. Perspective. You can get a different one by moving just a little. It’s well within your range of powers.Â
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scillagrace 
Beautiful subject and both pictures are so pleasing to the eye! I favour them both
Thank you, Chris! I appreciate your visit and hope you’ll return!
My pleasure, I will be back
Boring !! shock horror!! .. get up close and personal 🙂 I love the open door photo.. gorgeous light. Very bad for books to be piled like that though I’m sure he doesn’t do that with the valuable ones !!
I know; how can books be boring? It’s an ego thing, I think – the need for human affirmation. As for the piling system, it minimizes footprint. I suppose compression is the danger, right?
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I do understand they have to be piled in a small area because of where you live but if piled too high it can and does cause distortion of the shape of the book.. I’m sure Steve knows this and as I say doesn’t do it with more valuable books. I have a signed 1st edition of Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks which has some leaning to the spine almost certainly to do with the way it was stored.
Steve is chuckling with a big smile on his face, “She’s a book person!!” He used to yell at his father for leaving books open face down to save his place.
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Busts the spine that does 😉
Indeed, and that’s the first thing he describes in his listings: “spine intact” is what we want!
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An interesting stream of contemplation and the photos are wonderful to the eye of anyone consumed by books. 🙂
Browsing titles and making a stream of them is a fun ride, really!
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Gorgeous shots, love it! 🙂
Thank you! Thanks for visiting!
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One says “organized hoarder” to me, the other “up close and intimate”…..you could get rid of the other women with a dry wind and a match (just kidding)
Oooh, wry idea!
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The combination of the stacks books and your commentary are a stellar duo. You’ve brought imagery and text together in a way that pierces the layers, and gives much room for additional thought. Well done.
Thanks very much, Sally. It was a great opportunity and challenge!
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Being a lover of words, book, and photos myself, I love the way you capture PERSPECTIVE so eloquently with both your words and pics. Books and photos….a world within our own world. It’s a great place take a day trip sometimes!
Thank you so much, Liz! I’m glad you enjoyed your visit to my world within the world, and I hope you’ll come again!
Great shots Scilla…The shots and Helens storage harangue remind me of a trip a few years ago, to Hay in Herefordshire, (famous for its literary festival and innumerable (well thirty or so) second hand bookshops….I was browsing the stacks in a tiny-weeny one when another shopper absolutely tore a strip of the shop owner for vertical storage….Poor chap was quite distressed, almost in tears as he explained he couldn’t afford a bigger shop and that there was ‘No bloody money in books!’……..
I felt so bad I bought a battered paperback, spine not intact, that I really didn’t want…..
That was my introduction to David Mitchell…just 30 pence for an admittedly knackered “Ghostwritten”……
Mitchell is now, probably, my favourite contemporary writer…
Lucky happenstance.
See? There are always stories in bookstores, even though there’s no bloody money. And I believe that stories make us all rich!
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With my wife on my knee, my head in a book and my hand around the neck of a bottle, I am a King…..
🙂