Just watching an interesting documentary on my most hated channel BBC 1, called Books, The Last Chapter, about the rise of electronic books and the demise of the actual paper book. And for me it is painting a rather sad and bleak future about the future of one of my favourite things, books.
I am a woman obsessed with books. I have a trail of them left from different places that I lived, like a map of where Laura has been. I love going into old book shops and spending hours in there reading back covers, touching book spines, practically inhaling the smell of words. I'll happily spend my last fiver in a charity shop buying them (and doing my bit for charity at the same time) buying ones that I might not necessarily go for normally, but for £1.50, I'm easily led. Having them around me in my house or in my bag, lets me carry my memories around with me, much like parents do with pictures of their children in their wallets. I know exactly where I was in life when I bought my various collections, having a weird compulsion to sign my name, the days date and the place I am in, on every book I own. Even the fact that my signature has changed a wee bit over the years has shown me how I am growing up. I love them, I absolutely adore books. They take you on magical journeys through places and times and feelings that you might never have experienced before. Like the Led Zeppelin biography written by their their tour manager that I grabbed in Zhivago's in Galway before I got a bus home. I read that book from cover to cover in about two days, not letting it leave my sight until it was done. When I finished it, I distinctly remembered looking up from the last page, looking around me and being extremely disappointed that I was in fact in my home house in 2005 and not a Led Zeppelin groupie or having had experienced their American concerts in the early seventies. Bitter in fact! How could this be possible! I passed that book onto several people, and each one of them came back with the same feeling of wanting to be there. Despite the fact that I had seen many nostalgia films and TV shows about life in that decade, nothing quite touched me as much as that book. And being able to pass on the joy with it physically, made me even happier.
I can re-read a book several times, in the same way that you can watch your favourite film over and over again. I have had, in my life time, no fewer than fifteen copies of my favourite book ever written, The Eyes of the Dragon, buying copies and giving them to friend, then buying more copies to give away and always leaving me without one somehow, but it doesn't take me long to find one somewhere. I have read that book over twenty times, and I never skip a page, I adore the story so much. And I have been in love with it ever since picking up a copy in my friends room and reading the first page, I was hooked like an addict to it. I have loved reading since I was old to enough to actually do it. I remember reading the back of the cereal box at breakfast when I was a kid, amazing the amount of detail on a Kellog's box when you are six. When a book has been adapted to the big screen, I will always chose the book, knowing that even with the best intentions, the scriptwriter and the director will never be able to live up to what I have imagined in my head. In fairness, it is just their interpretation of the text they have read, and that's fine by me, I just don't want to see it and have illusion ruined. The one book I have enjoyed just as much as the film adaptation is GoodFellas, with Ray Liotta being an inspired choice for the main character. But that's where it begins and ends, give me the book any day.
Having my imagination fired is one of the main reasons for loving reading so much. I am not into art as such, it doesn't move me or inspire me, in fact it downright confuses me. But words, words make sense, they can hurt you, they can make you smile, they can make you fall in love, or feel feelings of utter hatred, they can inspire you and confuse you just like art, but I understand them better than any painting I have ever seen. Having my imagination fired is something I love, and apart from bandying around banter with friends, I have only ever had that from books. Thinking about what the protagonist really looks like, what colour their hair is, how the green velvet jacket feels, what the eyes of the person they are writing about really look like, or how the wind felt on their skin that day on the beach. A good writer can bring you so far with descriptions, even a great writer can only bring you to the horizon where your imagination must kick in and you must see these things for yourself. And that makes me happy! Getting lost in someones words and in a different world to where you are now, even if they are writing about the street where you live, makes me smile.
What doesn't make me happy, is the onslaught of the e-readers and the Kindles. God I hate them. For me, they are up there with the invention of the atomic bomb and guns. I love the feel of a book, the sound the page makes underneath your finger tips, the subtle noise that happens when you turn over a new leaf, the smell of a freshly printed book or the musty fragrance that comes from a hand me down document. I have given an e-reader a go, a proper go, even borrowing someone's Kindle for a day to see if I could get into it and be converted over, keeping an open mind throughout. But it just wasn't the same, and I know it never will be. Until my dying day, there will always be a book on my person somewhere. Having the weight of one in my hand will always and forever out do the feeling of having a piece of electronic equipment in my hand. Yes, there are the pro's of a Kindle or an e-reader, with them being lightweight and portable and getting to have seven thousand of your favourite books with you at all time. But I don't want that, I want to have my current book physically on me. I want to turn the page. I love turning the page! Not tapping a button and letting a machine do it for me. I probably won't have children, so any nieces or nephews that come my way, I will do everything in my power to ensure they chose books over electronics every time. And I will never read to them from screens, it will suck the joy out of it for me. Yes, it is happening and will continue to happen that more and more people will turn away from real life literature and move towards the e-readers, but I refuse to let it happen with me. The demise of book shops saddens me, bringing to mind Fahrenheit 451, which I have sadly seen twice. Not being able to walk into a shop and browse through books and their covers upsets me, and the thought of actually downloading a book to read makes me mad. I don't want my grandnieces and nephews looking at me oddly and wondering what the hell Aunty Laura is on about when she speaks of books, I want them to know what they are, I want them to be surrounded by them. Some batty old women collect figurines and plates and stamps, I will have books.
If you are like me and have any grá for reading and for books, then please boycott the e-readers and Kindles this Christmas, and perhaps cling onto the fast fading past, and buy a book. Walk into your local book shop, browse the selection, and buy one. Don't let them become a thing of the past and have them as something future generations see in museums, let them be an active part of the future. I'm not passionate about anything really, except books and reading. They have taught me things, about people and about words and about countries, they have enriched my life beyond belief, and for me, my world would be a lot sadder without them.
I am a woman obsessed with books. I have a trail of them left from different places that I lived, like a map of where Laura has been. I love going into old book shops and spending hours in there reading back covers, touching book spines, practically inhaling the smell of words. I'll happily spend my last fiver in a charity shop buying them (and doing my bit for charity at the same time) buying ones that I might not necessarily go for normally, but for £1.50, I'm easily led. Having them around me in my house or in my bag, lets me carry my memories around with me, much like parents do with pictures of their children in their wallets. I know exactly where I was in life when I bought my various collections, having a weird compulsion to sign my name, the days date and the place I am in, on every book I own. Even the fact that my signature has changed a wee bit over the years has shown me how I am growing up. I love them, I absolutely adore books. They take you on magical journeys through places and times and feelings that you might never have experienced before. Like the Led Zeppelin biography written by their their tour manager that I grabbed in Zhivago's in Galway before I got a bus home. I read that book from cover to cover in about two days, not letting it leave my sight until it was done. When I finished it, I distinctly remembered looking up from the last page, looking around me and being extremely disappointed that I was in fact in my home house in 2005 and not a Led Zeppelin groupie or having had experienced their American concerts in the early seventies. Bitter in fact! How could this be possible! I passed that book onto several people, and each one of them came back with the same feeling of wanting to be there. Despite the fact that I had seen many nostalgia films and TV shows about life in that decade, nothing quite touched me as much as that book. And being able to pass on the joy with it physically, made me even happier.
I can re-read a book several times, in the same way that you can watch your favourite film over and over again. I have had, in my life time, no fewer than fifteen copies of my favourite book ever written, The Eyes of the Dragon, buying copies and giving them to friend, then buying more copies to give away and always leaving me without one somehow, but it doesn't take me long to find one somewhere. I have read that book over twenty times, and I never skip a page, I adore the story so much. And I have been in love with it ever since picking up a copy in my friends room and reading the first page, I was hooked like an addict to it. I have loved reading since I was old to enough to actually do it. I remember reading the back of the cereal box at breakfast when I was a kid, amazing the amount of detail on a Kellog's box when you are six. When a book has been adapted to the big screen, I will always chose the book, knowing that even with the best intentions, the scriptwriter and the director will never be able to live up to what I have imagined in my head. In fairness, it is just their interpretation of the text they have read, and that's fine by me, I just don't want to see it and have illusion ruined. The one book I have enjoyed just as much as the film adaptation is GoodFellas, with Ray Liotta being an inspired choice for the main character. But that's where it begins and ends, give me the book any day.
Having my imagination fired is one of the main reasons for loving reading so much. I am not into art as such, it doesn't move me or inspire me, in fact it downright confuses me. But words, words make sense, they can hurt you, they can make you smile, they can make you fall in love, or feel feelings of utter hatred, they can inspire you and confuse you just like art, but I understand them better than any painting I have ever seen. Having my imagination fired is something I love, and apart from bandying around banter with friends, I have only ever had that from books. Thinking about what the protagonist really looks like, what colour their hair is, how the green velvet jacket feels, what the eyes of the person they are writing about really look like, or how the wind felt on their skin that day on the beach. A good writer can bring you so far with descriptions, even a great writer can only bring you to the horizon where your imagination must kick in and you must see these things for yourself. And that makes me happy! Getting lost in someones words and in a different world to where you are now, even if they are writing about the street where you live, makes me smile.
What doesn't make me happy, is the onslaught of the e-readers and the Kindles. God I hate them. For me, they are up there with the invention of the atomic bomb and guns. I love the feel of a book, the sound the page makes underneath your finger tips, the subtle noise that happens when you turn over a new leaf, the smell of a freshly printed book or the musty fragrance that comes from a hand me down document. I have given an e-reader a go, a proper go, even borrowing someone's Kindle for a day to see if I could get into it and be converted over, keeping an open mind throughout. But it just wasn't the same, and I know it never will be. Until my dying day, there will always be a book on my person somewhere. Having the weight of one in my hand will always and forever out do the feeling of having a piece of electronic equipment in my hand. Yes, there are the pro's of a Kindle or an e-reader, with them being lightweight and portable and getting to have seven thousand of your favourite books with you at all time. But I don't want that, I want to have my current book physically on me. I want to turn the page. I love turning the page! Not tapping a button and letting a machine do it for me. I probably won't have children, so any nieces or nephews that come my way, I will do everything in my power to ensure they chose books over electronics every time. And I will never read to them from screens, it will suck the joy out of it for me. Yes, it is happening and will continue to happen that more and more people will turn away from real life literature and move towards the e-readers, but I refuse to let it happen with me. The demise of book shops saddens me, bringing to mind Fahrenheit 451, which I have sadly seen twice. Not being able to walk into a shop and browse through books and their covers upsets me, and the thought of actually downloading a book to read makes me mad. I don't want my grandnieces and nephews looking at me oddly and wondering what the hell Aunty Laura is on about when she speaks of books, I want them to know what they are, I want them to be surrounded by them. Some batty old women collect figurines and plates and stamps, I will have books.
If you are like me and have any grá for reading and for books, then please boycott the e-readers and Kindles this Christmas, and perhaps cling onto the fast fading past, and buy a book. Walk into your local book shop, browse the selection, and buy one. Don't let them become a thing of the past and have them as something future generations see in museums, let them be an active part of the future. I'm not passionate about anything really, except books and reading. They have taught me things, about people and about words and about countries, they have enriched my life beyond belief, and for me, my world would be a lot sadder without them.
