I've Always Wanted
a wall of books--not in an office at work, but at home where I can scan the spines and relive the places I've been in my mind and heart. I don't have a Kindle, a Nook, or an iPad. . .I'm sure I will one day, but for now I like the heavy boxes, the musty smell, the cumbersome collection of physical books.
In college, I used $20 bills as bookmarks occasionally; so near the end of the month, I may leaf through some books from college on the shelves in my bedroom, just in case. The other night, my husband was looking for a classic to read, so we got out a few of my boxes of books from my teaching days. It was fun to leaf through those. . .D's certificate of baptism, my Auburn diploma, pictures of a best friend and me from high school showchoir, a thank you note from a group of ESL students written in seven different languages, a photograph of my godson as an infant (I just saw a homecoming pic of him on Facebook yesterday!), a picture of me when I was three and my youngest looks JUST like me save the hair color.
These books all hold a piece of me: whether in the marginal notes,the papers or mementos tucked inside, the memories of which subway I was riding as I read it. With e-books, we lose all that, don't we? Are there ways to add your mark, mark your text, imprint in your mind the reading experience, so that pieces of yourself can be revisited just by looking up a book? I don't know. I don't think I can make the switch.
Those of you who have done it: what's your secret? How do you do it? What, if anything, do you feel you've missed? Am I just a low-grade hoarder?
one thousand gifts #20: the feeling of adventure I get when I start a new book and how that feeling returns when I see/hold/think of the book, months, years or even decades later. . .
In college, I used $20 bills as bookmarks occasionally; so near the end of the month, I may leaf through some books from college on the shelves in my bedroom, just in case. The other night, my husband was looking for a classic to read, so we got out a few of my boxes of books from my teaching days. It was fun to leaf through those. . .D's certificate of baptism, my Auburn diploma, pictures of a best friend and me from high school showchoir, a thank you note from a group of ESL students written in seven different languages, a photograph of my godson as an infant (I just saw a homecoming pic of him on Facebook yesterday!), a picture of me when I was three and my youngest looks JUST like me save the hair color.
These books all hold a piece of me: whether in the marginal notes,the papers or mementos tucked inside, the memories of which subway I was riding as I read it. With e-books, we lose all that, don't we? Are there ways to add your mark, mark your text, imprint in your mind the reading experience, so that pieces of yourself can be revisited just by looking up a book? I don't know. I don't think I can make the switch.
Those of you who have done it: what's your secret? How do you do it? What, if anything, do you feel you've missed? Am I just a low-grade hoarder?
one thousand gifts #20: the feeling of adventure I get when I start a new book and how that feeling returns when I see/hold/think of the book, months, years or even decades later. . .
I have not yet made the switch.
ReplyDeleteI agree so much with your post. My mother died about a year ago and I inherited all her books - which belonged to various family members - her, my grandmother, my grandfather and then further back w/ some relatives' names that I don't even know. And the greatest gift was not so much the books themselves, though some of them are pretty neat, but it was looking through the books at marks people had made, notes written to others, stubs & receipts left in books. You're so right that we will be losing all that...and it won't really have the same impact when you give someone an e-book, will it? Certainly they can't transmit the new book smell!
And I love that feeling of adventure as well!
Exactly! I have my great-grandfather's Pilgrim's Progress which is beautiful, but even more intriguing are the underlined passages. I don't think I'll ever make the switch. . .
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