Beyond Words

“I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library,” Jean Luis Borges

My daughter Kristen recently said something that somewhat shocked me but warmed my heart and made my day.   No, it wasn’t “I love you” or “I made the Dean’s List,” it was “I don’t really like Kindles or Nooks.  I like the feel of a real book in my hands.”   Yowzah!

I am a book person; a true book worm.  I have stacks of books just waiting to be read butI always want more.  I’ve yet to give in to the Nook/Kindle trend.  My dream house would not only include a ginormous closet with lots of storage nooks, but a two-story library too.  You know the old-fashioned, Henry Higgins style room with lots of wood and a rolling ladder.   I’ve heard all the great features of reading on Nooks, Kindles and the like, but a room full of downloads just wouldn’t be the same.

My biggest fear is that books will go the way of CDs.  How very sad and tragic that would be.  Thankfully, books, unlike CDs, are historical.   I may miss albums with all their fun liner notes but I don’t really miss cassettes or 8-tracks and I do love Itunes.  But, try as you may, a downloaded version of “The Great Gatsby” will never measure up to an original book version.    There is no denying that William Shakespeare and Henry Faulkner would perhaps love that their works are hitting the masses via download after download, but I’m also certain they’d probably prefer the printed versions of their masterpieces remain available and preferred.

I am such a book nut that I have an entire Pinterest board just on books!  I was also one of those crazy college students who never bought used books because I wanted to do my own highlights.  One of my biggest dreams?  To be the proud owner of a library card from the New York City Library!

Novels.  Biographies.  Coffee Table Books.  Cookbooks. Self-help Guides.  I love them all!  I tend to gravitate toward non-fiction but I also love a sweet romance.  The only thing I love more than books themselves is going to a bookstore.  I’ve always said that when I go into a bookstore I’m like metal and the books are steel:  they just stick to me.  I walk in with every intention of buying one book but  I walk out with at least three.   Sadly, bookstores are becoming few and far between.  On-line sales are starting to dwarf those of their retail counterparts and it breaks my heart.  First it was the big chains eating up small, independent book sellers.  Now even some of the big box stores are closing shop.

I’ve always loved to read.  I remember loving “Charlotte’s Web,” “The Little Lame Prince,” and all the Nancy Drew books.  Today I have a small but meaningful collection that includes old copies of “Heidi,” “Mary Poppins,” “Dick and Jane” and many Golden Books.  I tend to hang onto my favorites, which of late have been “Marley and Me,” “The Day the World Came to Gander,” “Southern Lights,” “Around the Bloc,” “Look Again,” and “The Glass Castle.”  Other than the Bible, perhaps my most favorite book ever is “Gift from the Sea.”  I’ve read it many times and each time I do it speaks to me differently.

Books in general mean so much to me, as does reading.  Perhaps it’s the wordsmith in me but what’s surprising is I don’t really have a tried and true favorite author and often times I can’t even tell you the author of a book I’m reading now or previously.  I’m also not a book snob.  I’m just as happy reading Danielle Steel as I am John Steinbeck.  I love many of the classics but not all of them, and I refuse to read something just because “I’m supposed to.”  As Mark Twain said, “Classic-a book which people praise but don’t read.”  Amen Mr. Twain.

The perfect spot to crawl up with a book

I’m always reading at least two books at a time:   one novel and one self-help, spiritual or non-fiction piece.  I will, however, never buy a book whose cover is a film’s adaptation of it.  If I didn’t read it before it became a movie, I probably won’t read it after.  Case in point:  “Forrest Gump” and “Silver Linings Playbook.”  After seeing those two films, and many others, I sure wish I would have read the books first!  On the flip-side, how sad it is to see a movie about a book you loved only to be disappointed.  As they say, “never judge a book by its movie.”

The next best place to crawl up with a book

Book clubs? Yes, I’m in one but I don’t read every monthly recommendation, mostly because, again perhaps surprisingly, I’m not a fast reader.  I’m not one of those who “blows through” books.  “Easy reads” can take me three months to finish.  I also don’t want to read anything I’m not interested in.   If there’s anything I hate is feeling like a book is an “assignment.”  I don’t like mystery or sci-fi and I never read any of the “Fifty Shades” books.  Truth be told, after being so proud that the authors of both the Harry Potter and Twilight series were women, I was very disappointed to learn a female wrote “Fifty Shades of Gray.”  I just don’t get it, but that’s just me.

Love this idea!

How do you feel about Nooks and Kindles?  Love them but love books too?  Happy to see books go totally high-tech?  Please share your thoughts.  I’d love to know!  Until then, I’m off to read!