Books Smell Good

Do people still press leaves between the pages of a book? Before electronics took over our lives, a nice autumn afternoon could be spent collecting leaves of various colors, sizes and shapes. The leaves were then taken back home and placed between the pages of a book. There they would stay, perhaps forgotten until next year. We haven’t had many nice autumn afternoons this year and books are being threatened by electronic devices.

The other day I was paying for some books at Barnes & Noble when the clerk handed me an advertisement for their new electronic device. Nook is the newest gadget designed to complicate our lives.

Like its competitors, Amazon’s Kindle and the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble’s Nook makes it possible to read the text of a book, magazine or newspaper on a portable electronic screen. The images can be ordered, downloaded and stored on the device where they are displayed on the screen. An electronic image of text on a computer screen is not a book – but the devices are being referred to as electronic books. I don’t like the reference – but I can’t change it. A book is paper, ink, glue, and binding. It has a physical heft, a friendly scent and pages to touch.

I studied the clerk as I took the ad from him. Did he know that he was unwittingly aiding in the demise of civilization? I looked around the store and saw people talking on their phones while they looked at magazines. I watched friends who at first glance appeared to be enjoying each other’s company over a cup of coffee, but instead were busy sending text messages. I wondered if they were communicating with an unseen person and ignoring their coffee partner, or maybe they had lost the art of snappy conversation and were corresponding with one another across the table.

I am a bit conflicted with this battle of old versus new. I actually like and use technology. I write (type?) these words using a computer; I then email (electronic mail) it to my editor. I refer to my Blackberry often and I no longer own a typewriter. It has been many years since I have sat down and wrote a letter using pen and paper, but there are only a handful of people who can read my handwriting anyway.

I suppose electronic books have a purpose and a place. Perhaps like the iPod which has made it easier to listen to your favorite music, electronic books will allow portable access to the written word – but I can’t help thinking that we are losing something along the way when we so readily grab the latest gadgets and place our past on the shelf.

It was either Twain or Einstein (I can’t find the reference, but it was some guy with white hair) that had developed a trick to wake himself from a nap. While reading a book in his chair he would start to nod off. Not wanting to sleep his life away he would hold the book with one hand over the edge of the chair and close his eyes. Just before he would slip into a deep sleep his hand would relax its grip on the book allowing it to crash to the floor. The sound would wake him and he could start reading again.

Using the same method with an electronic book would probably only work once or twice before you had to replace it.

I suppose someday I will surrender and buy such a device. But I should buy two for napping and pressing leaves.