Reading is like living thousands of lives and those who do not read have only the experience of one life. A Tumblr blogger, booklover, is a promoter for this ancient form of static travel. Keeping true to tradition she saturates her day with an unending turning of pages, real parchment if she’s lucky, entering into amazing worlds full of beauty. She shares with Sensa Nostra what it is about literature that draws her heart, the importance of reading, and how technology will never kill the importance of the book.
The trend nowadays is the e-Reader. I don’t have one but I could imagine getting one, one day. There’s just something indescribable about the smell, the feel, of a good book, to feel the physical form in my hand, and to have the satisfaction of turning the crisp page. I tried to read from a Kindle once but it just wasn’t the same. I didn’t feel like I was reading a book, there wasn’t the emotion or connection. That said, I don’t consider e-Readers to be a bad invention nor would I say they have destroyed the sanctity of the physical book. People who use e-Readers tend to be book-lovers anyway and I sympathize with how an e-Reader solves the space issue – some e-Readers hold over ten thousand books! I, however, am a collector, and love seeing stacks upon stacks of books piled in my house to the point of spilling onto the street. As I always expected, non-readers aren’t jumping on the e-Reader bandwagon, beyond buying the toy just to have it; they tend to avoid books generally. But I have also seen how e-Readers can seduce non-readers into being book-lovers, which is fantastic. I’m known for having a strong prejudice against those who do not know or respect the value of good literature. It’s a phenomenon I can’t understand.
I guess I would say I’m more or less a classic-lit junkie, or perhaps incredibly selective. There are so many terrible books put out nowadays and it can sometimes kill the artistic value of literature itself. Especially with regard to publishing companies who in order to survive sacrifice their own values on what constitutes good writing to turn a profit. My problem with that is the meaningless products the public is then subjected to. If the publishing companies produce terrible books, the people are reading terrible books or choosing to not read at all, which just perpetuates cold capitalism and idiotic narcissism.
But when I do get my hands on a good book, it is like the world opens up and I plunge deep into a dreamland full of possibilities. If I love a book it becomes more real and important to me than anything or anyone else; more real than anything or anyone in this physical “reality”. Reading is like living thousands of lives and those who do not read have only the experience of one life. If I end a day without having read a book, I count that day as a total waste, and I feel my life would be incomplete were I not to embrace literature and reading as I do. Nothing in this physical world satisfies me like wrapping my hands around the embossed, leather bound spine and turning the pages to discover a mystery world that I alone can explore. A book is a magical key to an unchartered place.
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