Reading Rainbow
I love books. Not just for the words inside, but the way they smell, the way they look on a shelf, the way they sit in your hand… I love old books with illustrations that speak to a different era and new books that use the latest laminating techniques for eye catching covers. Books are pretty great.
Through my teenage years and into my twenties, I never once checked out a library book – why would I need to when I had a veritable library at my fingertips at the bookstore where I worked? As it was a used bookstore, I was allowed to borrow, but I usually bought them anyway. By the time I graduated from college and left retail, amazon.com had trained me on a new way of satisfying my reading itch, sans shipping and sales tax. Working in publishing, even more books came my way – both ones I worked on and the comp copies sent from friends at other companies. It’s only when I moved—eight times in as many years—and had to cart those 20+ boxes of my prized collection, that I regretted my bibliophilia.
A few months ago, I finally swore off buying books impulsively and joined the 21st century by getting a library card. (Seeing as I live within 3 blocks of the San Francisco public library, I no longer had an excuse not to). So much has changed since I was pudgy and wee and checking out books about mice on motorcycles and vampire bunnies. Did you know that you can browse the card catalog…online?! And what more, they’ll even pull the books and have them sitting at the counter all wrapped up for you and ready to go. I know! It’s like all this time, it’s been Max Keebler day and nobody told me!
So far I’ve caught up on Kim Stanley Robinson, saved myself $20 a pop by borrowing the latest from Paul Auster and Murakami, learned about the wonders of tulips and the evils of corn courtesy of Michael Pollan, read about gold farmers, Hadals of the subcontinent, Yzordderrex and expats. On queue, I’ve got Stephenson sci-fi, Sweedish noir and some T.C. Boyle I skipped before.
The freedom offered by a library—no cost, no commitment, virtually no limits—is both exhilarating and intimidating. I’ll discover a hundred new bands in a year and see as many films and I feel pretty well informed about both, but books? As much as I love them, when it comes to reading, I’m still such a novice.
I don’t really have any point to make today—rather, I need to flex my blogging muscles just a little (as I’ve been flexing my poor legs trying to get back into jogging) before I lose all momentum. Consider this a warm up for what will hopefully be a more substantial posting in the next day or two.
10. November 2008 at 6:11 am :
“So much has changed since I was pudgy and wee and checking out books about mice on motorcycles and vampire bunnies.” Now I feel old, because I remember those days too.
Admittedly though, it makes reading Fruits Basket easier because you can request them and not have to go hunting all over the planet for them.
10. November 2008 at 2:57 pm :
yeah..i’ve been asking Willow to hunt them down for me, but since i just spotted them for the first time in borders around two months ago, it’s kindof hard to get a hold of them, and the libraries i liv near have almost no manga, comics, graphic novels…anything that got big after 1995 has been lost into a void.
10. November 2008 at 3:35 pm :
Have you read Artemis Fowl? If not, I highly recommend it, it’s a great series
10. November 2008 at 5:22 pm :
“I love books. Not just for the words inside, but the way they smell, the way they look on a shelf, the way they sit in your hand…”
Yes!!! Me too, that’s exactly how I feel. I remember as a kid loving how books smelled, sort of papery and dusty, and the way their pages made a sort of crisp sound when you turned them. There’s a tactile pleasure in reading them. Sorry, but no Amazon Kindle can give me that….
10. November 2008 at 6:46 pm :
The book will never be replaced with the e-book or whatever you want to call it merely because there is something beautifully sensuous about holding a volume of an author’s hard labor. It makes each story different even before you start to read.
I have a copy of Lord of the Rings printed on that uber-fine paper they use for Bibles and they will have to pry it out of my cold dead fingers before I surrender it. That and my vampire books, my copies of Bewoulf and the Faerie Queen, and last and certainly not least, my Return to Labyrinth manga.
10. November 2008 at 7:59 pm :
I think the day I became such a book lover was the very first day I set foot in my local library when I was about three or four. It seemed so big, and smelled so wonderful, and I just wanted to stay there forever. Even today, I just get a certain chill whenever I set foot in a library.
I haunt used bookstores and thrift stores because I love older books. A lot of the books I own are old books that are out of print today. It’s a strange and wonderful feeling to know that I’m probably the only person of my generation to read these books. It breaks my heart when libraries throw out their old, wonderful books for trendy trash.
In response to what tanuki said about loving the smell of books, I feel the same exact way. To this day, whenever I read a book, I occasionally stop to take a sniff. It’s just a comfort to know that in this ever changing world, we still have one great connection to the past that will hopefully never go away.
On a similar note, is it weird that I sometimes dream of discovering the ultimate library? I know most girls my age dream of finding the ultimate man, and I dream of finding a building full of books…
10. November 2008 at 11:08 pm :
I’m a book collector and since the invention of The Internet it’s made it very easy to feed an addiction and to also go broke. Besides ebay and amazon there’s another helpful jewel for find rare and hard to find books. The link is in this comment.
11. November 2008 at 6:44 am :
I’m not a “collector” but my Dad has twelve copies of the Lord of the Rings (including the second edition or something really rare like that). He also has the adventures of Tom Bomberdil, Farmer Giles of Ham, and a ton of the collections of Tolkien’s unfinished work. He’s really strict about making people wash their hands, hold the book just so…
My sister nearly murdered me for not holding a paperback right last time she found me reading, so I’ve started reading only MY books and library books when she’s around. (Can someone explain to me how there is a right way and a wrong way to hold a book? I wasn’t bending back the cover or anything!)
11. November 2008 at 1:44 pm :
no idea. i’m like that too, with certain books. my step-parents, for example, aren’t allowed to touch them, and neither are my step-siblings, half-siblings, Hunter, pretty much no one’s allowed to touch them but myself and my parents, and usually just end up letting Willow use them that go through a 2-week long argument about it.
11. November 2008 at 3:46 pm :
‘Can someone explain to me how there is a right way and a wrong way to hold a book?’
Spines are fragile. And when collecting they’re the most important part of the book because without a good spine the pages start to fall out or the covers come off. Once you crease the spine on a paper back book it’s all down hill from there. If I really like a paper back book then I’ll buy a reading copy and one to keep mint.
11. November 2008 at 3:54 pm :
You have to be VERY careful with any paper back book if you want to prevent the spine from creasing. Dog earing is secondary to damaging the spine. The spine is the most important part.
11. November 2008 at 6:49 pm :
Ah, got it.
Now, you see, dog-earring drives me nuts. I’ve seen entire sections of text torn out because of dog-earring. But what really, really enrages me is when I check out manga from the library and all the really cool bishies have been ripped out.
12. November 2008 at 1:46 pm :
i hate dog earring as well.
but i crease the spine on my favorite part of a paperback book so that it will fall open to that part. even on my Labyrinth Manga.
when the cool, well, “bishies” are ripped are ripped out it puts me off, but not to much. sometimes if there’s stuff like CDs, posters, or stickers, the librarians take them out so that they won’t get stolen, and sometimes so they can put them up.
no, what PISSES ME OFF is when someone loses a important book, or rips the cover off *couch, cough*Hunter*couch, cough* (my little brother) or when someone tears a page out of writes in a book.
and that will end my rant.
12. November 2008 at 8:21 pm :
By “vampire bunnies” do you mean “Bununcula” of “The Celery Stalks at Midnight” fame?
Books are my addiction. Okay, both my parents are addicted too. Whether bought or borrowed, books=love.
13. November 2008 at 10:03 am :
Currently, one of my family’s favorite authors is Terry Pratchett. We have a paperback copy of “Guards! Guards!” that is so beat up it ought to be put out of its misery and we only bought it a few years ago. That poor book has been loved so much it borders on mistreatment despite the fact everyone is very careful with it.
But it’s funny because the line in Pirates of the Caribbean about “guidelines more than actual rules” may–and I do us the word “may” because I’m not sure–come from Soul Music, which I am currently reading aloud to one of the small people in my current residence. Isn’t it interesting that literature affects the media in the quirkiest ways?
Yes, Scarylady, I think he was referencing Bunnicula. And also I think I caught a Beverly Cleary salute as well.
31. December 2008 at 4:41 pm :
[...] Caving in and getting a library card at last and loving it! [...]