Groucho Marx
In my previous apartment, I had a curvy bookcase on the wall- a bookworm, which you can shape in different ways. Unfortunately, I could hardly imagine where to put it in my new interior so I decided to give it as a present to the new owner. It is often challenging to fit your books in a small flat and I imagined, how happy he shall be that at least one task would be solved. To say you the truth, at that moment I was very proud of my kindness and generosity. But man proposes, and God disposes. The only thing he told me in reply: ‘I do not have any books’. I had an embarrassing pause because simply did not know how to react to these words.
I am not a saint or a snob, I do not read a lot and spend plenty of time in my smartphone or laptop, but nevertheless, I love real books much more than e-books! Have you noticed, that we are surrounded by letter E: e-learning, e-books, e-banking, e-invoices? The list is not exhaustive and will become only longer over the years. Yet I realize the inevitability of increasing online services and their benefits for the society, I am definitely not ready to convert my whole life to E-format.
And I chose a Book.
Some of them I brought from other countries, others were inherited from my parents and grandparents or were bought at the flea market. They are my memories. They will be memories of my children. This is how family traditions are established.
I am not questioning the value of a good book to the generations to come. Can you imagine that some of your grandchildren would say: ‘Hei, look, this PDF file is very special, it was created and saved by my grandma’. It sounds ridiculous, isn’t it?
I will show you some examples from my collection!
Incredible Victor Hugo’s books of the year 1883 I found on the flea market in Paris. Never mind if you do not understand a simple word in French. It is enough to touch them and carefully turn over the leafs.
The World Atlas of Wine will give you insights into well-known wine regions! Chablis, Mosel, Medoc, Bordeaux… Sounds familiar? By the way, such atlas may be even used as a study book about geographical indications in trademark law.
Photo and fine arts albums stand apart from all other books. They are usually brought from vocations and are associated with very happy life moments! This is my way to save memories about the city I was in, museums, people and my own feelings which come together with the book.
Someone may claim that nowadays it is easy to find lots of rare and exclusive books in digital format. No argument there. I totally share the view that accessible digital books bring benefits to everyone. Incredible that today there are technical means and opportunities to make it real! My post is not about dark sides of digitalization and not a call to go and buy real books, I even do not get any remuneration from publishers for praising printed books!
I simply wanted to say, that I love my books and will never leave them behind. We changed video tapes to DVD, we changed simple phones to smartphones, we call from Finland to Indonesia by Skype, and we still read books. Perhaps we shall not underestimate their magic?
Jane