The Smell of Paper
05 December 2011 22:46:54
The Smell of Paper
I am really getting stuck into this book at the moment. It is 'Thoughtful Gardening' by Robin Lane Fox and it was probably on many people's list last Christmas. Although I was given it some time ago, it was in a queue after some other books so is only getting read now.
And, as I read, I have my highlighter in hand and I mark the sections I want to remember or the names of plants I want to get. Pause for dramatic effect!...
Now I, like many of my age, was brought up to believe that books are almost sacred. You got yelled at in my house for turning down the corner of a page or leaving a book turned upside down and open on the pages you wanted to keep. The spine would crack, for god's sake, and we would all fall headlong into the abyss of illiteracy!
In my house we opened new books at the middle page and sniffed to appreciate the smell of newly-cut paper. And you never, ever, ever got rid of books. You stored them forever as a testimony to what you knew or as some kind of trophy. But most of all you certainly never destroyed books. Book burning is what they did in Nazi Germany for god's sake!
However, times have changed. Trash is written. Books are disposable. Houses have less space and teachers instruct students which passages to underline in their textbooks and give out if it isn't done.
And I have changed. I highlight passages I want to find again easily, especially in gardening books. Who does the book belong to anyhow and who's use is it for? My kids won't want it after I'm gone. I feel liberated! Oh and, Paddy, this is my roundabout way of saying I wrote on the book you gave me!