Why There Will Always Be “Real” Books

One good thing about being sick is staying a home and watching movies you never get a chance to watch.  Just this morning I indulged myself and watched 84 Charing Cross Road.  Of course, just about anything with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins in it has to be good. 

But in the course of this delightful movie there are a couple of descriptions which I particularly like, and I felt like they explained why I feel there will always be books.  During one part Helene (Anne Bancroft) talks about books – the feel, the smell.  It’s not just the printed word which book lovers love.  It is the actual physical book too.  You can’t get that off an electronic device – and heaven knows I love my gadgets.

To go to a bookstore or library and run your hands over the spines of the books is something only a real book lover knows.  And the smell of a used book store, the jumble of books piled everywhere – that’s what I love.  Right now, beside my bed, there are 3 books in the process of being read.  Yes, I can keep the stories separate.  Beside my desk is a second stack of 6 to start on.  Savvy has asked for a bookshelf for her room as her books are piling up and like all true book lovers, we want to have OUR books near us.  Community shelves in another room just won’t due for those books which are precious to us. 

Now, I am far from the classics reader Helene was.  Give me my trashy novels any day.  But I still love to be able to pluck one off the shelf and flip it open to a part I like and start rereading from there.