Books...not Kindle

I’ll never have a Kindle or a Nook or anything resembling either. Or maybe I will. But I doubt it. I love bookstores far too much to give them up. I love the weight of a book…the way the pages feel when you turn them…I love jacket notes – and what happens to them on a Kindle/Nook???? I loved reading album liner notes…never the same on a CD and well, ITunes – they aren’t even there. Liner notes were great. They could provide insights into artists’ inspiration, reveal inside jokes within the band, hook the reader with some cryptic information, and give the band a place to say thanks. Maybe that’s it! The loss of liner notes is a manifestation of how society has lost its manners! But I digress.

I read a lot as a child. We lived overseas for a good portion of my childhood and therefore, I didn’t have TV as a distraction. I started with comic books and moved to the Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys series. But the book that first moved me was Little House in the Big Woods. The setting was so foreign to me…I was thoroughly pulled in to the descriptions of the massive woods, pioneering, the idea that candy can be made from snow and maple syrup…and the simple nature of life. It’s been maybe 40 years since I’ve read it and I can remember the way it made me feel still today. That is the value of a well written book.

I read in bed, on the couch, in the bath, on planes and trains but never in the car. I get carsick. When I find a good book I can’t stop reading it. I devour it. I’ve been known to re-read books I love. I’ve watched movies over and over again, even those that weren’t so great but I’d never re-read a mediocre book - something about wasting such an important effort.

So many books have moved me or inspired me or simply delighted me. But I find some are an acquired taste…and that they need to find you. I read Heart of Darkness in high school and just didn’t get it. Later in college I read it again and thought…wow! Why didn’t I understand this book when I read it before? I guess I needed to live a little.

The English Patient is simply the most beautiful prose to lift off a page to me. I read and reread passages as I worked through it the first time. Do not compare it to the movie. The movie can stand alone as an interesting film with a wonderfully haunting soundtrack. The book, however, is a piece of art. Such delicately worded paragraphs and impeccable language…they beg you to read more.

Smilla’s Sense of Snow is a long time favorite. I find Scandinavian writers dark and compelling with an unsurpassed ability to capture detail. You can almost feel the cold and wetness of the snow and sense the desperation of the characters…it’s an incredible read.

I’ve started on another Scandinavian work, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I’ll see how it goes.