Why books?

The first rule of being a reader is to never lend your book to anyone unless you intend to not see that book for a long time. As the most famous book cover designer Chip Kidd said "I believe that the core purpose of a physical book is to record our existence and to leave it behind on a shelf, in a library, in a home, for generations down the road to understand where they come from, that people went through some of the same things that they are going through, and it's like a dialogue that you have with the author. I think you have a much more human relationship with a printed book then you do to something that you watch on screen."

Hello from the other side!

The physical aspect of a book is like a person, it has a spine, a face. It documents human experience like no other. It can be a little different for you and me but more or less it's the same. That's the reason why we relate to books so much. Before books, having a scripture or writing scriptures on walls, stones or leaves, etc to record things, were considered luxurious.

Before Johannes Gutenberg created a means to mass-produce a book now known as the modern printing press, books were written by hand and were expensive items. After the printing press was started, books got a larger audience and were easily accessible.

In my opinion, people want to hold the book, have the feeling of turning a page and to mark your progress in the story. Having your book with you and to move around with it. Above all the smell of ink on pages and the feeling of old pages on your fingers.

You can read articles on the internet saying whatever there is to be said about the benefits and importance of reading books etc. But I want to tell you why I love books so much. So here we go...

I remember in 8th std it was compulsory to read books and borrow from the library every week and while returning it you have to write a book review for that particular book which you chose for that week. And shockingly enough I didn't read at that time, like at all. So as a non-well-read human, I thought the smartest thing I could do was to write the synopsis that was written at the back of those books. Thinking I am the smartest of them all and who needs books when you can outsmart a librarian. I couldn't be any more wrong.

Fast-forward to when I was about 15-16 of age. I read this book called Looking for Alaska by John Green. It was kind of my first book. I had read books before of course. More like tried reading, like those library books which I used to borrow and like the one we had in 10th std, '3 man in a boat' was it? God, it was so boring, to be fair I haven't read it and am not planning to read it anytime soon. It was scarring. I almost didn' feel like reading any book after that at all. But I did read Looking for Alaska. I loved it. Somehow I guess I did not focus on it that much at first. It was just a first book for me. I read it again years later and I feel in love with it all over again. This time it meant so much more to me than it ever did.

Books to me are like Lovers. You never know when it's the right time to confess your love so you never do. It kills you from inside when you think about it and even though you had cried every time you read it and promise yourself to never read it again when you are lying on the floor in your room crying, you still continue reading it. You can't see anything properly because of the tears in your eyes and so you close the book for a few minutes. For a minute you do regret reading it again but even though you know what prevails ahead, you miss this feeling when you are not reading. It breaks you but you feel alive when you do read. It is the only time you don't stop yourself from feeling any emotions because it's easier to accept that you are crying over a book who is there with you through thick and thin, than to crying over a person who really doesn't care. You don't want to feel vulnerable in front of people who are unpredictable even though you have known them all through your life. Books don't judge you, they just sit there quietly beside you, comforting and watching you, waiting for you to pick them again and dive into their world again.

Someone once said "When the Day of Judgment dawns and people, great and small, come marching in to receive their heavenly rewards, the Almighty will gaze upon the mere bookworms and say to Peter, “Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them. They have loved reading." It makes so much sense. The ones who read have already had everything, so they don't need anything else. Especially every experience there is. That, someone, was Virginia Woolf.

I really believe that the people who never have read before never really believe in magic. For all of us who read, regardless of our hearts being shattered, every time we have to close a book and come to the "real world", we go to Hogwarts with Harry, we aspire to be as empowering as Jo March, we fell in love with Noha and Allie, we went to Culver Creek with Miles, and many more...

Gail Carriger once said on an Interview with The Booklovers blog, "I suspect it may be like the difference between a drinker and an alcoholic; the one merely reads books, the other needs books to make it through the day." I believe books are the only type of intoxication we need.

Love, Athena.

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