At some point, beautiful artistic books became what we call coffee-table books, which means they sat on a table looking attractive and collecting dust, serving not only as decoration but to communicate the intelligence of the home鈥檚 owner.
It is doubtful if they are read as a 颅regular book would be, and the topics 鈥� well, although beautifully photographed, 鈥淏rass door knockers of 16th century Tuscan 颅Villas鈥� or the minimalist 鈥淢id-Mod Pool Patios of Palm Springs鈥� just seem a bit too chic for my old dog-hairy, woofy-smelling heritage home in James Bay (there鈥檚 no knocker and the porch needs painting).
Coffee-table books can be wonderful 颅additions to your home, and make great gifts. I just feel that I need to relate to the subjects.
I admit that I have some gorgeous books on Russian palaces and treasures, but at least I鈥檝e been there. The Amber Room鈥檚 gold and mirrored adornment at the 颅Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg had me awestruck 鈥� I had to purchase the book.
Three coffee-table books arrived on my porch 鈥� which needs a good pressure 颅washing 鈥� this week.
Converging Waters: The Beauty and 颅Challenges of the Broughton Archipelago by Gwen Curry, with photography by Daniel Hillert (2020, Rocky Mountain Books Ltd.), describes the unique ocean area off Port McNeill in Queen Charlotte Strait.
The book has informative text, along with lovely photographs, and each of its four chapters tells of a different concern 颅(Community, Forest, Whales and Salmon). In the first chapter, on community, the author considers the changes in the little coastal villages that dot the coast from the past to the present and it is rather sad.
鈥淎s strange as it may sound, the coast of British Columbia was more populated, and more friendly to small industry, eighty years ago than it is today,鈥� Curry writes. 鈥淐ars and roads were not as ubiquitous, and 颅people stayed where they were out of necessity or travelled by boat. Every cove and inlet offered a service: A salvage logger, 颅lighthouse 鈥� foundry.鈥� Today, the population has gravitated toward towns, 鈥渢aking the neighbours away.鈥�
If you visit Cormorant Island and the 颅village of Alert Bay, you will see the old 颅cannery still standing within its salt-whipped corrugated tin walls, jutting into the cold, dark bay. It鈥檚 still used by the local 颅fishermen, their enormous piles of nets entwined with rope and flotsam 颅resting on the creaky loosening boards of the 颅surrounding deck.
Aloft: 91原创 Rockies Aerial 颅Photography by Paul Zizka (2021, Rocky Mountain books Ltd.) includes a vast 颅selection of spectacular images, but with very little text, thus providing us with the time and space to slowly turn each page and ponder the magnificence of the Rockies.
The message is simply the wonder of these peaks and the glacier emerald and azure lakes 鈥� to me, the lakes are as 颅stunning as the summits.
The photos also depict mountain towns along the ribbon of railways and the 颅Trans-Canada Highway, as well as unsettled skies, estuaries and lush forests 鈥� including manmade wildlife corridors and overpasses 鈥� of the foothills. Sometimes I feel that to see the Earth from above is more profound than to be within it. I often have a little weep when I fly home from afar, as the plane glides over Sidney at night, over the golden red glow of the Smitty鈥檚 sign.
The photographer says it best in his introduction: 鈥淔rom up high you feel acutely aware of your own insignificance, yet also like the whole world is at your fingertips.鈥�
What Bears Teach Us by Sarah Elmeligi, with photographs by John E. Marriott (2020, Rocky Mountain Books Ltd.), describes with great affection, based on years of research and observation, the behaviour and lives of bears in their various environments, 颅including the world of humans.
Through extensive informative text and personal field notes (along with the 颅enchanting photographs), the author reflects on the lives of bears and suggests we could learn much from how they deal with life.
An engaging chapter on polar bears in the Arctic is titled Resilience, which refers to climate change as well as human interaction. There鈥檚 a frigid and bleak image of a row of cold metal bear traps waiting in the snow near Churchill, Manitoba. The bears are caught in these great frozen containers and sent to 鈥渢he polar bear jail,鈥� a 鈥渂ear holding facility where rogue polar bears coming into town are held for 30 days. 鈥︹��
It鈥檚 good news. though. The 鈥渏ail鈥� is for everyone鈥檚 protection and the bears are eventually freed onto the sea ice, away from humanity. Hmmmmm. Perhaps a book on 13th-century Polish goblets would actually be a good distraction from the polar bears鈥� fate amid melting ice and the arrival of the cruise ships.
