22.7.11

In which I soliloquize about reading...

It's been ages since I last posted. I was traveling in the spring and this summer I've been reading like mad. It's been delightful, reading again. When I was eleven I spent almost all of my time reading, but as I got older the frequency with which I read entire books dropped. It wasn't that I wasn't reading, but it was articles, textbooks, references, and such; not the kinds of things you put down on booklists or find yourself thrilled by.

However this summer I've started tearing through books again. Novels, history, sociology, and pedagogy mostly; it's made me deliriously happy. Really. My new favourite thing is to wake up before the sun has risen, make myself a latte, and then curl up in a winged armchair and read while the morning sunlight begins the pour in through the windows. Immersing yourself in a delightful book while the room slowly fills with sunlight feels like ascending into nirvana. Because, if you're really absorbed in the book, you aren't really paying much attention to the sun, you're just vaguely conscious that the longer you read the more the entire world seems to be improving around you.

I've also taken to using the Kindle app. on my iPad. It's shocking, I know, and if you're a book aficionado I understand if you feel somewhat obliged to shun me, but you must hear me out. Physical books will always hold a place in my heart (unless of course they're paperbacks, which are horrid and I hate).

However, my affection for books has more to do with their containing information that I want, than that they are antique, tooled leather, paper holders. I don't buy books because they're pretty, or musty smelling, or satisfying to hold, I buy them because I want to read them. While a Kindle will never make shivers of glee run up my spine, the fact that I can carry a couple hundred books around in my purse makes up for the lack of gilt edging.

I still buy physical books, but now I can read Les Miserables in my room in hardcover, or spontaneously in a coffee shop when I find myself with fifteen spare minutes I didn't expect to have.