Over the years, I have shifted from someone who reads paperbacks to a Kindle-user to a ReadersRewards member on ThriftBooks.com. Sometimes, I am overwhelmed by how much space my books occupy in my dorm room and bedroom. That doesn’t stop me from going to Content in downtown Northfield so often that most workers know my name.
As one of my professors said when urging us to buy copies of our class materials, “books become our friends.” They hold sentimental value and bring out memories. Reading a book attaches you to the story, characters, and author. Books that I love begin to feel like friends. There is an exchange between the reader and the book.
In the same way, books change us, we can change them. Our pencil marks, underlining, dog-earing, tear stains, and spills make a book unique. Each person who reads a book leaves a mark on it. A well-worn book shows its impact on people. You can tell what pages and chapters were most loved. The spine splits where people hold the book open to take a longer look or show it to someone. Someone’s musings and underlined passages give us an insight into them at the point of time when they read the book. You can tell what the reader found important or exciting from their markings and creases.
E-books allow you to bring books anywhere you go. You can bring whole libraries of books without the ache from carrying too many books — a pain I know all too well. Using a Kindle will give you more shelf space. My Dad pointed out to me that having e-books make it more difficult for people to see how many books you own/buy. E-books, however, don’t provide the same sense of the gravity of what a text means to you and others when you hold it in your hands, seeing all the changes by you, your loved ones, and strangers who have all experienced the same book across the time.
While I spend too much money on books, I still try to borrow books from the library. I always carry two library cards in my wallet, one for my hometown library and one for the Northfield Public Library. I feel more connected to a place when I get or read a book from there. It gives me a better understanding of who and what matters to the community I find myself in.
I come from a family of readers. A few of my friends share my passion for reading. We share books, give them as presents, and recommend them to each other. Sharing a book with someone you love is one of the most pure ways to share your personal, internal life. Thinking of someone when reading and lending them that book is a certain kind of intimacy not bestowed by e-books.
Caroline Geer is from Northville, Mich. Her majors are race and ethnic studies and sociology/anthropology.
