What is the value of a book? The information it contains? The words, the thoughts? The Feelings? If these are the things a book has to offer does it matter the container in which it comes? A sentence it the same sentence on an e reader, a phone, a hard cover, a cheap mass market, a trade or read aloud as an audio book. Right?
Of course that’s right, but I think a book has a lot more to offer. I think the experience of reading matters. I think the texture of the paper, the weight of the book, the feel of the cover, I think all these things frame the experience of a book.
Not only does the quality of a physical book effect the reading experience, I think it does something kind of magical. Once you’ve finished reading a book it is transformed into a little time capsule that you can store on a shelf. When I’m looking to reminisce I often go and pull a book off my shelf. The act of holding and thumbing through the book rockets me back to the time in my life when I was reading it. The train ticket, or movie ticket or receipt that’s still tucked into the pages as a bookmark. The marks from drops of sweat or ocean spray from a long ago beach read. The crinkle of the cover that allowed it to fit into a the pocket of a long gone jacket. All these physical aspects help transport me back to my state of mind and expereance when I was reading the book. All of that is then the perfect set up to remember the contents of the book. How the book framed and affected my experience at the time and how my experiences framed my understanding of the book.
I love a physical book. How else can you capture such ephemeral memories and set them on your self?
