Warning: this is photography-adjacent only.
Sometimes I buy second hand books. Either on Amazon or on local markets. Mostly because when you buy a lot of books it becomes expensive. Especially photography books. And I need the money for photography and astronomy. On occasion, these books come from libraries that have closed or that have sold some of their stock of rarely borrowed books to replace them with books people prefer.
I love when these books still contain their date stamped lending cards.
When I was 11, I discovered that I liked reading. I think it was the result of reading a book called The 79 Squares, by Malcolm Bosse, when I was on holiday in Tunisia with my parents and it was way too hot to do anything outside most of the day (who thought going to Tunisia in August was a good idea?).
I hadn’t bought the book. I had never heard of it. But I had entered a writing competition (I don’t recall the theme) and won second prize. It’s probably the only non-music or photography competition I ever entered in my life. The first prize was a trip somewhere and I had no interest in that. But the second prize was 20 random books. That I wanted. And I was lucky.
I took with me a few books and The 79 Squares was among them. And it blew my 11 year old mind. No spoilers (though it’s a kids’ book, so you’re not likely to be interested), but it’s the story about learning to see (hence the thin link with photography) and connection (hence the link with Substack). I have forgotten a lot of the books I read in my life (for a while I was reading a book per day), some for the better, but not that one.
As I was reading a lot, when I got to middle school the next year (college in France; you start it when you’re 12 year old) I found my way to the library. It was a giant room on the ground floor of the building, and it was usually empty and quiet. It was the only room in the building that was carpeted.
It was the first time I went to a proper library and I was amazed by the number of books and genres that I could borrow. All the walls were covered in books, with aisles sticking out. What you imagine a library to be. But the most interesting corner (sci-fi and crime fiction) was on the right from the front door, all the way in to the far wall. I spent a lot of time in that corner, agonising about what book to borrow next.
I always read several books at once. That’s when my habit started: I was limited to 6 books at once, but I started always having 6 books out at all times. So I’d start all the books at once, alternating books from day to day, until I finished one, then go and replace it at the library. I did that for several years and discovered the science fiction classics (HG Wells was my favourite; Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury), Agatha Christie, and many others.
One of the things that always fascinated me at the library (other that the card filing system, which I thought was a mix of archaic and genius) was the lending cards inside the books where the due dates are stamped. I loved looking at them and wondering why such or such a book hadn’t been borrowed for entire years, or why another was constantly out. I always tried to imagine who would borrow those books, I must have seen these kids around, what they thought of it (it was the early 80s, no internet at the time for discussions), and if we’d agree on them.
So now, when I buy books that were in libraries and the cards are left in them, I always keep them safe in the books. I don’t want to lose that tiny piece of history. It’s meaningless, but important. It’s part of these books: that what makes the books I have distinct from the other books from the same run; that’s what makes those books exclusively mine.
#PhotographyAdjacent #Opinion #Personal