Sue Waters

As a book lover I discovered that charity shops like the Salvos and Good Sammy are great sources of finding hidden book treasures.  Not sure why it took me so long to realize?

History Books

Indulging my passion for history I’ve found books that are no longer published or books I wouldn’t normally buy.  Read a great book recently that someone wrote on their family history that I really enjoyed reading which you wouldn’t find in a bookstore or the library.

My most recent favorite is Perth: A Pictorial Contrast which I purchased for $2.00 and spent hours reading.  An incredible book!

Published in 1986 the book shares photos of my home city, Perth and Fremantle, as seen by contrasting panoramic photos from the 1920’s to 1960’s with the exact same panoramic photos taken in 1985.

I found it amazing to read how Reg Lambert started taking panorama photographs in 1922 using a panoramic camera and equally amazed looking at the new panorama photographs taken by Phil Gray.  Incredible duplicating the exact same panorama photograph in 1985 without the benefit of digital cameras we have today.

Here’s a page from the book that shows an early photo of Barrack’s arch from St George’ Terrace contrasted with the one from 1985.

I’ve highlighted in the next photo from the book where you can see the Pensioner’s Barracks being demolished as the Mitchell Freeway is being built.

And then in the 1985 photo – if you click on the image it opens up in a popup window and you can see the Mitchell Freeway underneath where the Pensioner’s Barrack was.

The Barracks Arch, is one of Perth’s iconic historic buildings at the top of St George’s Terrace that you pass on the way to Kings Park.  It was originally built as the entrance to the Pensioner’s Barracks which was built to house the Enrolled Pensioner Force – the guards that came to Australia on convict ships.  The Arch was kept after the Pensioner’s Barracks was demolished to build the Mitchell Freeway.

Researching the history of early panorama photographs lead me to read more about panoramic cameras and to find the Historical Panaromas: Perth and Fremantle website where you can explore these types of photos online.

Cook Books

My other book passion is cooking and I’ve been trying to collect the Jamie Oliver cookbooks I don’t have.  His earlier books aren’t always stocked in our local bookstores — or are expensive compared to his newer books.

Here’s the ones I’ve found so far!  Ranged in price from $3.25 to $5.25.

It’s been interesting reading his earlier books and comparing them to his latest.  His first book, The Naked Chef, was published in 1999.  I prefer his earlier books to his newer cookbooks.   My favorites from my collection are ‘Jamie’s Ministry of Food’ and ‘Cook with Jamie’.

Bonus Points

I especially like it when books I find have writing inside the front cover – by someone giving it as a gift or by the author.  It creates a sense of history and mystery behind the original owner of the book.