Tuesday 28 September 2010

I like the feel of a book.

Books are soft, they feel good in the hands, they have a certain weight. Then there is sentimentality: those carefully chosen books from a dear friend or lover, something is written inside the cover, there are pressed flowers in there somewhere as well, you read the book on some exotic holiday and the pressed flower is a memento. I have a book with rose petals from  a garden in India and all the wonderful people I met there wrote a memento inside. And books look good, there is design and artistry involved in creating the cover, they are meant to be seen and displayed and enjoyed.There are books with tear stains, coffee stains, locks of hair inside.I love my old books that when opened up have squiggles drawn inside by my children when they were toddlers.I remember the intense look in their little faces as they turned the pages, studied the content, and then drew a little toddler whirl with a biro. They even then knew there was something important about books and acknowledged this in their own way.Will ebooks bring the same joy and pleasure? No, they are sterile, cold and hard.Book sales may be diminishing but I don't think its because of ebooks taking their place, its a change environment, exciting, but its not the funeral of books, too much pleasure at stake.

1 comment:

  1. I always felt the same, but now I'm struggling not to press the 'add to basket' for a Kindle. A library in my hands. Arrrrgh!

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