Highrise Books

One of Central West Libraries’ staff recently returned from a holiday in the United States. It was with both delight and disbelief that she captured the photograph of a three-floors high stack of books about Abraham Lincoln. It is a focal point in the stairwell of a souvenir shop attached to the “Petersen House” in Washington where Lincoln died after being shot in the nearby Ford Theatre. The photograph is taken from the third floor looking down to ground level. The books are stacked in this extraordinary manner to emphasise the great number of publications on Lincoln. Fortunately for the souvenir shop assistants, copies of the books in the display are kept in a more readily accessible area in case someone wishes to purchase one from the upper shelves. However, it does make you wonder who does the dusting up there?