photo of the day: macleod’s books
Recently I cleaned out my email and went back to an image Ray sent to me. Being really busy I didn’t pay enough attention to the accompanying text and I missed that the image was made right here in Vancouver at the most extraordinary bookstore in town, MacLeod’s books. Here is the link to the whole story.
I stepped inside there yesterday to see if they had any out of print photography books. They didn’t have a large photography section but they sure had a huge art section. It was really busy in there and as you might imagine from the link above, books were everywhere. Literally. Even in the bathroom. Dust lay thick in some corners and as people opened the covers, some began to sneeze–myself included. “Bless you”, the man standing beside me said. I remarked how wholly appropriate it was to sneeze in a place like this. He smiled and nodded. Places like MacLeod’s remind of my father and the times we used to go into bookstores no matter where in the world we traveled. Sometimes he’d buy something but even if he didn’t, it was all about the experience of being surrounded by books and losing all track of time as we delved into their pages. He always used to say that everyone has at least one good book in them. I think that was his way of encouraging me to write, that and taking me to places like Foyles in London.
I’ll go back to MacLeod’s, maybe not to make pictures but to spend time looking through all those piles. Who knows? I might just find a rare book on photography. 
My Dad used to live in Hay on Wye which is famous for it’s masses of old book shops so have lost many hours of my life rambling through shelves and piles of old books. I’d often return home with bags full of paperbacks and quirky old books – usually about gardening or cooking. My husband would tend to be glued to the sports sections in search of a rare copy of Widsen.
My Dad would have liked your father! I wonder sometimes about the generation that will grow up reading books completely electronically and hope that old bookstores will still be around for them to discover how books are meant to be experienced. It just wouldn’t be the same to never leave home and spend a few minutes online to buy the same content but in such an empty container.
My uncle runs one of the old book shops in Hay. I will admit, rather ashamed, that we only visit him once a year or so. This is due to the fact, that every time we go, there is a big pile of ‘I thought you would like these’ books stacked up, behind his desk.
I have to agree with the sneezing though. Unfortunately, I think he’s some books in there for 20+years!
The high streets all around the world could certainly do with more like this!
I think I would love your uncle as much as I would enjoy his bookstore
and I definitely agree that the world needs more of these stores!
Even before I read your text, I could definitely smell your photograph.
Pretty powerfully evocative
You must be a book person, Erin. They have special sensory powers you know