Books

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Only a book-lover can understand what it is to pick up a new book and smell between the covers, or to pick up a favorite book and turn to those oft-read lines, or to browse in a book-shop in air conditioned comfort or to tread footpaths in summer-heat for second-hand books,...any exercise related to books or has books as the focus seems enjoyable, pleasurable even.

With the turn of a page i am transported to a different world, without moving an inch i have the power in my hands literally to traverse the earth, walk across time-zones, even eras...at my will i can become a part of another world, another era, another life...

Re-reading old books almost feels like catching up with old friends, the familiarity and comfort of knowing what to expect and what to overlook...and reading new books akin to making new friends, sometimes, unsure at the beginning, sometimes establishing immediate comfort-zone...

The power of the written word, to move us to to tears, to make us laugh, to take us to a different world....wow! what a power!

Can any electronic medium or gadget replace the comfort of the feel of books while lying in bed, or while cuddling with it on a winter morning with hot coffee...

I can't see it happening in the near future, nor do i want to.

Comments

churpi said…
I guess thats one thing still which tech revolution still has not been able to take away. The SMS and e mail have replaced the old art of letter writting. I know there efforts afoot to replace traditional paper by e paper and e ink. But at this stage technology is not cheap and there are issues of standards. However wether we like it or not paperbacks would soon be things of past. But yes I would still miss the smell of a new book or for that matter the familar smell of a old faithful much trusted much loved book.
March 18, 2010 at 10:46 PM
Unknown said…
Try running for cover from rain holding your iphone over your head!
March 22, 2010 at 9:52 PM
Rekha Menon said…
Very true indeed. The sight and smell of a favourite book is almost like an aphrodisiac to a book lover. The heightened pleasure at the sight of a book by a favourite author which one has missed reading is sometimes inexplicable. And I feel that the intense liking for books is inversely proportional to the dislike for Librarians( no offence intended to anybody in specific). Their eyes hang like a Damocles' sword waiting to fall on your idyllic world inside a book by announcing the closing time of the library or sometimes crashing down on your world by saying that the book which one has chosen cannot be issued due to some dubious and implausible reason. Whoa!! Loads of memories recollected. Thanks to the author.
August 18, 2016 at 6:09 PM
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