Book after Book

Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum , Amsterdam, December 2011

I hate flying but some airports are not that bad! Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, July 2011

An exhibit at the Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam. How useful books can be!

Wandering around Amsterdam last winter, I came across this little bookshop: Leeshal Oost. At first, its cute candy-striped awning made it look like it might be an old-fashioned greengrocer's but upon closer inspection the mistake was rectified! I believe that this bookshop, which can be found at Commelinstraat 53, 1093 Amsterdam, deals in used and rare books and magazines only. I might be wrong but I don't remember seeing brand new books. That said, I think that I was too fascinated by the shop itself to pay too much attention to books that, as far as I could see, were exclusively in Dutch. Look at the curved glass in the window - so beautiful! The use of shopping trolleys to display the books was also very original. The more I think about all those sad, discarded trolleys polluting our fields and rivers, the more this seems to be the way forward!

I don't really know how copyrights work so - just in case - I am not going to post here one of the pictures that on Friday, December 17th was part of the Europe under snow slideshow on the Guardian's website. However, nobody forbids me to encourage you to click here and take a look! The photograph was taken by Margriet Faber in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The caption says: A man removes snow from the awning of a bookstore in the city centre. The picture portrays really nicely the disruptions and complications that snowfalls are causing to our daily lives all over Europe. As a booklover, however, I am looking at this good shot and all I can think of is: why on earth are they leaving their books outside while it's snowing?!