Tag Archives: books

Books and encyclopaedias

World Book

I took this photo while wandering around one of our prestigious Catholic schools, St Joseph's College in Rondebosch (map). St Joseph's has both a junior and a senior school, housed in separate buildings, and clearly places a lot of emphasis on cricket - they have two large cricket ovals, which, according to one of the ex-pupils, is where kids spent most of their days after school and on weekends, batting, bowling, and running after cricket balls.

An interesting thing about this photo is the World Book encyclopaedia in the window. This particular encyclopaedia was first published in 1917, only one year before the school opened its doors. I think it's rather an interesting coincidence that these books and the building in which they lie both originated at around the same time.

Books are verbatim

Verbatim Books

Verbatim Books is a quaint old-style second-hand bookshop in a quiet and shady part of Stellenbosch (here's a map to their location).

If Kerry-Anne were made of iron, books would be like magnets. The moment she saw Verbatim Books, and the old bicycle parked outside, with flowers, my fate was sealed, we just *had* to stop in to explore. And explore we did. The bookshop isn't very big, but is filled mostly with second-hand books that are in pristine condition. They have everything from traditional old story books that you'd read to your kids at bed-time, to old classics like Kerry-Anne's favourite book ever, Jane Eyre (2006 movie), which I ended up buying because she hadn't ever seen the French edition and just *had* to have it. ;)

If you're a book person, you definitely should make a visit to Verbatim Books an item on your long to-do list. Kerry-Anne says it's the best bookshop she's ever been to. And she should know, I guess. :)

When books go out the window

When books go out the window

Besides the fact that this photo was taken outside a book shop in Cape Town, my story today has little to do with Cape Town itself. I love technology, and devices like e-readers and Amazon Kindles are awesome (I want one!), but won't it be sad when humanity eventually stops cutting down trees to print books?

Okay, yes, I know that it's a bit of a catch-22 situation - I'd support the saving of our forests, but on the other hand, a printed book is just so much better than a cold and generic electronic device. Apart from the touchy-feely part that makes real books cool, photos in particular simply look better in print - and I do wonder if digital would ever supersede the beauty of a printed photo.

P.S. I really have to find a publisher - I printed an 8x8 trial book a few weeks ago, and as I said, printed photos just rock!