The Perambulating Library (UK, 1858, Wikimedia Commons)
The book finds you.
In the library, you enter the sea of books; your eyes swim across the stacks, nibbling at the titles. Or the book lures your hand to the shelf to read some pages. Then, the book, the one that is hungry for you, catches you like a fish and reels you in. You may not even feel the hook. Using some sweet bait of words, the book snags your heart or mind and pulls you through its pages into a world or place so new, so old, so strange, so familiar, you can hardly breathe. And when you are thrown back into the world, you are not afraid. You come back to the places the books wait, angling for you.
You don’t find the book; the book finds you.
A book is looking for you; go to the library and let it find you.
Absolutely. That’s just how it works, and that’s just how it feels. And you won’t find that experience on Amazon.com!
I’ve ordered books from Amazon, but it’s just not the same. A physical book is a beautiful thing.
I’ve had that experience too… sometimes, it was something it was something quite irrelevant about the book… the binding, or the way it sat on the shelf… but whatever, I was caught.
Books have a thousand tricks to lure us in. When I read children’s books to my grandchild, I always look at the end papers. Sometimes just that makes me love the book.
This is just so true! Sometimes you just don’t know what it is about a book that drives you towards it. Well said!
It’s always a delight when a book reels you in, isn’t it?
Spot on. I remember my favorite childhood librarian telling us that the richest people in the world were the ones who walked through her doors. Never forgot. She spoke the Truth. Thanks for bringing her picture back to my mind’s eye. Dan
I always wanted to work in a library. I dreamed about reading books all day. Of course, that’s not what librarians do, but that’s what they do in my imagination. (I would probably be fired my first week for hiding behind the stacks reading.)
Green Eggs and Ham seems to find me a lot these days. I think it’s stalking me.
Small children often swallow the hook completely, and it’s very hard to remove. You have to leave the hook in and let the hook slowly disintegrate.
Sometimes that crafty cover art, sly creature that it is, angles for me and I can’t resist.
Book covers are powerful, and sometimes a well-dress book is really hard to resist.
I don’t do libraries anymore.
I am notorious at forgetting to return the books and end up paying huge fines.
My library kindly sends out e-mails notifying me of upcoming due dates, and, as if that weren’t kind enough, allows me renew online to avoid paying the fines.
If you don’t have that service, it may be cheaper just to buy books.
Last time I was in a library, I was stalked by a group of books that fell into my arms. I left with more than 8 books (which I could never read in the 2 weeks rental period). I am too weak for libraries!
We get three weeks use, but even that is often not enough time for my stacks, so I renew online and get six weeks. That’s one of the advantages of being in a smaller city, I guess.
This is a timely reminder that I don’t visit my local library often enough. Time to pop in and see which book is *looking* for me.
I hope a good book finds you soon.
I love the notion of a book finding you. It has happened to me more than once. It has also happened that a few clunkers have found me too.
I’ve been found by some clunkers, too. It’s like dating – a book asks you out and you just never know how the date will turn out.
Yummy, yummy, yummy.
Indeed.
I’m a voracious reader, but tend to head to the bookstore instead. Then, if it is wonderful, I can add it to the zillions in my house that I re-read happily again and again. If it is pretty good, I loan it to friends. If it is OK then I donate it.
The problem is the lack of bookstores. All the good ones are going out of business and it breaks my heart. It’s buying knowledge, and who doesn’t want that?
I used to buy more books, but these days I tend to use the library more. But I agree, it’s terribly sad to see bookstores go out of business. A few years ago, one of the local bookstores that had been in business went under (partly due to the local college choosing a big box bookstore over them.)