Saturday, January 9, 2010

For the Love of Books


Because the temperature hovers near zero in Wyoming today, I chose to remember this perfect sunset in California on our annual trip to visit friends in beautiful, idyllic wine country. I am also burying my nose in books.

Having no desire to set foot into the frozen tundra, I finished Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project and began Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, which was a pleasant surprise waiting at home for me last night, along with the four other books for my Ph.D. program.

I have always loved books. My first memories were reading Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop to my younger sister, listening to my parents read me Maurice Sendak's wildly brilliant Where the Wild Things Are, and going to our small local library for story hour.  I cherished books from the time I first remembered having them.  As I grew up, I would devour pre-teen novels until the wee hours of the morning, thinking nothing of getting up, going to school and not being sleepy all day.    Then books became an escape when my early adult years disappointed me, and eventually a way out of the darkness.

Now books are a vehicle to a more enriched and enlightened life.  I have developed a fondness for non-fiction, and I really can't explain why.  I started with chefographies, with my love of all things food and wine, moved into social science (Malcolm Gladwell, Nassim Nicholas Taleb), and then into world causes (Kristoff's Half the Sky).  Learning how others live, love, and long inspires me.

Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat is, so far, an excellent read, a stir-fry of cultures globalizing into a world of possibility.  I steadfastly refuse to get a Kindle, or any other electronic reading device, because I love the feel of books, the smell of them, the thrill of having a box of books delivered to my doorstep, and the comfort of having books surrounding me in the living room, the bedroom, the kitchen, my office.  I am not sure exactly when I embraced my grandfather's disdain of technology moving too fast, but in this case, I must admit - he's right!  I read newspapers online, I'd love to read them over breakfast, but we leave too early for work to be able to read a newspaper (not to mention that our local papers are nothing but unabashed amateur attempts at fledgling journalism), but I can't make the leap to online books.  Books are like friends, and while we are digitizing even our friends and relationships, I will hold onto my books with a loving, but firm and feisty, grasp.

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