Sunday, May 29, 2016

Smell-Bound

I am enthralled by the familiarity of a library, or a small bookstore. 
I like the feel of a book in my hands.
I like the "smell" of a book----new or old, BUT not on my iPad. Though I have downloaded books for ease when I travel, I rarely read them. I end up adding to the coffers of Hudson News (booksellers) airport locations.
Books stack up in my life. Stacked beside my bed and on my reading chair, beside the kitchen table and ALWAYS in the car, in case of a traffic jam.
This recent "stack"alone has taken me through the "old" west, into Old Testament times, inside Nazi Germany, in the halls of Harvard with the first American Indian to attend the school, to a small town, to a ministry for gangs in a large city, behind the scenes of vaudeville and into the mind of a celebrity battling bi-polar depression, etc.
Know that this stack is NOT recommended reading. Some books I haven't even read yet. Some I have skimmed and scanned quickly through because the writing was too disturbing for me.
One book I put down after two chapters---which is rare for me.
As I have aged, I take to heart the old adage, "so many books, so little time" and following the wisdom of King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 12:12) knowing that the "making of books has no end and ....can become wearisome" so if a book doesn't keep me "spellbound" with smell and writing and topic-----I put it down!!