What is a book?

A book to me is like a warm cup of hot chocolate on a cold, snowy day. It's refreshing and fills me with a sense of comfort and serenity, along with pleasure. I've always enjoyed reading books, the actual physical book, versus some elecronic copy because to me, it's a personal and intimate experience that you can't get anywhere else. I love the feel of the pages between my finger tips as I turn the page. I love the way that old books smell and crinkle when you open the cover.

Maybe it's because I don't like change, I prefer tradition. I've always read physical copies of books and when the idea came out to have books on a device like a kindle or nook or some other electric device, I wasn't too happy. I understand why people like them, they're small, easy to carry, the books are cheaper on those devices and you can store quite a few books on a single device. But what I don't understand is how readers can enjoy something that has nothing personal or intimate to it. With a physical book, you, yourself, have to carry out the motion of turning each page. You can write notes in the margins. If you like to buy used books, like I do, they may already be written in. I love when that happens because then I can see the way the readers before me interacted with the book and their thought processes and it becomes somewhat like some elite, silent circle of people around the book.

I hate the fact that ebooks are taking over, there's nothing personal about that and I want people to understand how much of a joy it is to own your own physical copy, to understand the different weights and feels, textures and fonts of books. It really is the most intimate thing that I feel I could experience, and I want everyone else to understand that the best things in life are things that don't come easy. I guess it just makes me mad that people are choosing ebooks because they're easier and quicker, but I believe that it's healtheir and more fulfilling to own a physical copy. Maybe that's just me.

Why do I read?

There are a variety of reasons for why any number of people may read. Some read because they have to, others to get information, and others read for pleasure. The reason I read is a collaboration of all three.

When I read it's like I can escape to a whole new reality, sometimes similar to the one i'm already in, and other times completely different. But that's why I enjoy it. You never know what you're gonna get and I believe that each book you read impacts you in a different way. With every book you learn something new, whether it's how to cook something extravagant, how hormones effect your decisions, or different love stories that are really pretty much all the same, they all widen your knowledge of different things, and that's what I love about books. Well. That's one thing at least.

What I really love about books is the creativity between the lines, how beautiful the story can be, the word choice especially. There's almost nothing that'll give me more over to a book than a collection of good choices of words, I believe they really sell the book. I love a book's ability to keep me wanting more, to stop everything and do nothing but read each word between the covers. The best books in my opinion are the ones that make me sad when i'm done with them, because once I finish, that's the end of my escaped reality.