under water

I went to a garden show this weekend. (You can see the plants I bought here on my garden blog). Loved walking through the garden displays, and I wondered how much time/work it took for people to create these elaborate setups of paths, raised beds, flowers, shrubs and even trees all growing in the exhibit space.

But this blog is about books. And I saw some there. And I involuntarily cringed. It was a display made by a company that does fountains to decorate people's yards- most incorporated into a stream or pond of some kind- and this one had a sculpture of a stack of books with water pouring over it. Very realistic-looking lovely books, with a film of water pooling at the top and cascading down the sides. I'm not kidding you, I literally flinched and quickly walked away (thus failing to get a photo to show you, I didn't even think of it). All I could think was: horrors! Those books are getting soaked! They'll be ruined. Albeit fake.

I could never imagine putting such a feature in my yard. I think it would make me uneasy every time I looked at it. What about you? Would you shrink from such a sight? or laugh at the absurdity of it?