Yesterday I went into a bookstore. As I walked around and looked at all the different types of books and all the knowledge one could buy, I became nostalgic.
When I was a little girl, my mother would take me to the library and I would sit and look through the children’s book section. I would carefully look at the books and decide which ones I wanted to take home and read. I never had much imagination so I never got transported into another world, as I have heard many people do. I simply loved to read as I love to read now. I love learning and I love reading stories people weave together, fascinated that they can keep the twists and plots running together to come to a final conclusion.
One of the parts of reading I love most is holding the book in my hand. I love being able to put it down, face down and pick it up right where I left off. I love dog earring a book page to keep my place. I love a pretty bookmark. I love picking a book up, looking through the pages, reading the front cover, deciding if it is worth my time. I love marking in a book…….underlining, highlighting, double underlining, writing my thoughts. I don’t get to do any of these things with a Kindle. I know technically you can do all these things with a Kindle but it just doesn’t feel the same. I only have a Kindle because it came with my IPAD so of course I had to give it a try. I did download a couple of books and read them even highlighted some stuff but I felt the yearning to turn a real page, to hold the book in both hands, to draw a star next to something that I really wanted to remember.
Yes, I am old school. I am all about progress but I am not all about real books, bookstores and libraries disappearing. I know change is inevitable and can be awesome but in this case I just don’t have to like it.
In this case, I am a proud old school kind of girl.