Books and Blipfoto

When I joined Blipfoto, I had no idea how much I'd benefit from book recommendations from other members or that I would seek out books about places where some of my Blip favorites were photographed. I couldn't fit into one photo all of the books that I've taken out of the library or purchased as a result, so here are two representative volumes, both obtained second-hand from the UK: the 1996 Ordnance Survey Street Atlas of West Yorkshire, and a 1978 reprint of Maternity: Letters From Working Women (1915), edited by Margaret Llewelyn Davies.

With the first, I've seen just how tiny was one of the villages ValC saw on her long Easter walk -- and I've fallen in love with names like Honesty Farm and Throstle Nest Farm. This map helps me understand better the relationship of Ilkley to the iconic images of the Cow and Calf by drmackem and earthdreamer, among others.

I think that I first saw Maternity on Ceridwen's wide-ranging journal. Gathered nearly 100 years ago, these first-hand accounts by British working-class women of their struggles to bear, birth, and raise their children tugged at my heart.

As I love books and reading as much, if not more, than photography, it's wonderful that Blipfoto brings me both!