Stop and Smell the Pages: The Rambling of a Reader

      With approximately one week until the release of the newest J.D. Robb book, "Obsession In Death", and me waiting with baited breath for it to land on my coffee table (or in most cases these days, in the depths of my iPad), I felt like it was time to address the interesting reading habits people take on. I have books everywhere in my apartment, and if there were enough shelves to accommodate them I suspect it would take on the appearance of a library more than of an actual living space (although I'd like to ask why a library couldn't be a living space. For some people it's pretty much the happiest place on earth, which is what your inner sanctum should be, right?).

    Anyway, about reading. When I was young it wasn't at all uncommon to see me somewhere with my face buried in a book, forced to find some way to busy myself while my mother was in an appointment or I was waiting to be picked up from...something. Books are worlds within worlds, places you can get lost in and find yourself overwhelmed with feelings you may otherwise never be able to capture in real life. For some they're an escape, a way to have the family you never did or find the love you think you never will. For others they're educational, teaching us how to draw the human body with accuracy or doodle a cartoon bunny rabbit with long, floppy ears. However they're enjoyed, they still are- even with the birth of e-readers, which allow people who read at the speed of light (maybe I'm exaggerating, but some people do read rather quickly) to carry with them more than one book at a time without the bulk that was so often a problem with the heavy readers.

   Some people like to re-read their books, which is something I often do when anticipating the release of a new book in a series. It's nice to revisit the old happenings, refresh the memories of what the characters were occupied with before the new book comes out and you're left wracking your brain to remember who that randomly mentioned secondary character was. Or when Bob decided to re-do the bathroom (was that in book seven, or book ten? Did Bob decide, or was he pushed into it? Is that really important?). Some people, however, don't re-read their books and ask people who do why they even bother?

   Why do you re-read books? Are you a re-visitor of stories you enjoyed, or do you prefer to remember as much as you're able without the refresher course? To me I think it's the fondness that has me hanging on to so many of the books I do. If I keep a series it's because I took so long to collect them, and I do enjoy re-reading those books, but it's nice to keep a series collection going, especially if you have so much of it. Sometimes it's a matter of security- you felt so good reading that book that you want it in your presence as much as possible even if you don't know if you're ever going to bother picking it up again.

   I do go to the library when I'm able, mostly because I've reached the point where so many of my books are in boxes and not on shelves, so if I were to take any more of them into my possession I'd need to start building a room for them. It's nice to take out a book and get the enjoyment without the cost of purchase, but if I like a book enough I'll go back and take it out again and again- which makes me think I should just own it. If you go to pick up your favorite book and it isn't there because someone else wanted to enjoy it, the feeling of envy rushes over you and you become resentful to the fact that this person got your book first.

    Okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but you get the idea.

    Print might be going extinct, with so many people preferring the tablet and e-readers to the feel of a physical book. But the smell of a new book is something I've loved since I was a child, and even now when I buy a new paperback I can't resist the urge to bury my face in it and breathe in the combination of ink and paper. It's no different than breathing in the scent of fresh morning coffee- the smell wakes up my brain and excites me as much as the prospect of reading each page and absorbing the story printed within them.

     So go read a book today. Or encourage someone else to read a book you love. Let print live on for as long as possible- because the joy of reading books is timeless and wonderful, and there are some things physical books possess that e-readers never will. So re-read a story, buy a new one, and dig out those boxes hiding in the closet to unearth an old favorite. Trust me- it's worth every second.