Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Paperback or hardback, I LOVE BOOKS!

Who doesn't love books?
They are our quiet, portable little friends just waiting for us to pick them up and spend some quality time with them. They will go with us anywhere--to the beach, to the airport, to doctor's waiting rooms, inside or out, our papery friends accompany us. Heck, we've even been know to take them into the bathroom!
My books don't need to be plugged in nor have their batteries changed. They never "crash" and if they're dropped, they simply go down with a thud unaccompanied by the groan, gasps and screams that accompany the "going down" of their cyber counterpoints. I once dropped a small paperback into a hot tub. A few seconds (on low) in the microwave and a short stint in the clothes dryer and I was able to find out "whodunit". Tell me the laptop you can do that with!
And how patient are our little library buddies! Don't have to push any pesky pause button for them. Just a little scrap of paper is all they require to pick up right where we abandoned them in their selfless efforts to entertain us. But please do refrain from bending down their corners.
I buy both paperback and hard back books for different reasons.
Paperbacks are so easily transported on trips. And after I've finished, one of my very favorite things to do is to just leave the book in a busy place, with a little note for whoever finds it to read it and pass it on. I love the serendipity of that and imagining who will find it and if they will enjoy reading it as much as I did. And I feel I'm saving a fellow traveler on the road of life from being stranded with nothing to read--a fate far worse than a flat tire, in my book.
If I really love a book (or if it's really cheap) I'll buy a hard back. Last hardback I bought was "Atonement" (hardback, $1.25) at a church book sale in Pasadena, CA. Inside the front cover was a guy's name from CO, followed by a woman's name (she was from L.A.) and phone number in a different handwriting. It was a small mystery in itself. As for "Atonement", it remained in CA with my niece, Monica, who hopefully found it as entrancing as I did.
Although we all know "You can judge a book by it's cover", my son being quite enamored with the art work on the original Harry Potter book covers was given my copies of the earlier versions. How absolutely wonderful is the book that is a beautiful on the outside as on the inside!
So, in the end, for me it all comes down to what is INSIDE the book, be it paperback, hard back, from Amazon, Borders or the Davenport public library. A good book is worthy no matter what the form in which you read. (Even--maybe, e-books--but you still can't drop those in the bathtub!)

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