Not so very long ago in the big scheme of my life, I, literally, would read over 100 books a year. (pun intended)

As an Air Force Brat that moved a lot when I was a kid, books were my friend no matter where I lived.

It takes me about a day to read an average book – 300-400 pages.  I eventually began to lean toward books that had a series – usually each volume was more weighty and I found that having a half a dozen books allowed for more character and story development.  Escapism at its best!  Exactly what a book should be when used for leisure.

A couple years ago I went on a vacation in Mexico that included beach time during many of the days ~ I moved through about 4 books.

First time in many years that I have done that and I haven’t read one since.

So very sad.

I believe this to be a result of our times ~ for many reasons:

1. There is no such thing as a 9-5 job with weekends or evenings off anymore.
2. Landline phones are a thing of the past – as my Dad used to say, “I pay for it so it is for my convenience … I will answer if I want and if it is important, they will leave a message.”
3. Further to that, there is nowhere to hide anymore where you cannot be reached.  We are almost physically attached to our cell phones and devices that allow for calls, texts, messaging, instagram, facebook, emails, etc., etc.
4. The very nature of today’s technology has reduced our attention span to seconds only before we get bored.
5. Books have now moved online as well … there is a beauty to getting a new physical book – hard or soft cover without the spine ‘broken’ – books are now just another thing that we can look at on our device.  It has taken away the Wonder and the Joy.

There are still the holdouts … my husband and I have about 6 big bins of hardcover books in our storage – I have read every one, some a couple of times and have loved most of them and have spent a multitude of hours in the minds and lives that have been created by those excellent authors.  I have collections of first editions of authors that I like – Wilbur Smith, for example, has well over 30 books and I own and I have enjoyed them all, more than once for each.  If you are a fan, you know that when a new book comes out in a series, you buy it and then re-read all of the preceding ones yet again to ensure you get the full effect of the new one.

I know others of my friends who still appreciate the Feel and Smell of a New Book.

That said, as our lives and our spaces fill up, bookshelves for most of us are going the way of the Dodo.  I am now looking to (sadly) find a place to donate my beloved hardcover books where they will be enjoyed by others.  It seems a crime to leave them in bins where no one touches them, reads them, smells them or appreciates them.

The sad challenge is that when I have inquired at various charities, they do not take books.

The world is changing.

Audio books are a new thing.  Apparently our lives are so busy that we need people to read books to us while we maintain our manic lifestyle.  It is frowned upon to sit in a chair with a cup of tea or whatever is your wont and just read ~ perhaps with a bit of music in the background.  You must be driving or running or walking or whatever and have the book fed to you in your earbuds so that you do not miss a moment of activity or connectivity.

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I’m hoping that is not part of my past as an Old Person.  I hope that physical books do not become scarce unless you are searching in a secondhand store.

I hope that the frenzied path that our lives are on will break soon and the value of down time and expanding your mind, either with a fiction release or educational and thought-expanding book will come back into value.

I own two first edition books by Mark Twain:

L 1,000,000 Bank Note – 1893

More Tramps Abroad – 1897

They are treasures.  Despite my concern about handling them, I read each of them ~ What a Joy.

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Books are one of the first ways that we, as a civilization, shared ideas and provided opportunities to take us away from our lives.    They have changed the world.

Authors are artists that share their hearts and minds and help us deal with our own lives.  Either by educating us, giving us food for thought, expanding our minds, giving us an escape from our everyday life or giving us hope and faith that we are not alone.

There is no feeling like reluctantly turning the last page of a great book and closing the cover and putting it down. Both exhilarating and mournful at the same time.

Long Live the Book.