Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A love affair...an excerpt from an email to a friend.

I went shopping for my textbooks today and I realized something I already knew. I have a deep love for books. My mom gave me a tablet for my birthday, which she started hinting not so subtly, that she wanted back once she realized I purchased myself a laptop around the same time. But I digress...I was excited to have something I could use as an e-reader. To date I've used it to web surf, study, play games and chat on occasion, but never to read a book. Today I went to the campus bookstore I browsed the textbooks I'd need, carefully choosing the best used copies with a few new books as well. I had priced out my books online and I was excited that two of the books that I would need were available as e-books. When faced with the decision between a card with a code on it and a beautiful book, with frayed pages, and veins in the binding from their previous owner...from their previous journey with someone that had their own love affair with words, just black text on white pages, pages that can take you so many places, that can help you enter other worlds, other dimensions, that can uplift you, pull at your heart strings or create new ideas that help you think, that can change your view on the world... Needless to say I couldn't do it...I bought all books. I rarely sell my books back because I often need anthologies for my classes and I find them useful to own. I love the smell of all books. I enjoy buying a new book, being the first to turn the pages. I feel accomplished when looking at the visible scars that book carries, it reminds me on the adventure we took together. I think this may be why I love being in libraries, bookstores, new and used.

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