Crinkly Yellow Paper

...I had a little too much time on my hands awhile ago (I don't even remember how long ago), and typed this whole thing up. Found it in a Word document, thought I'd share.

There is something so precious about a good book-- not just the story inside, but the book itself.
I know that e-books and Kindles are the next big thing in reading. I love the accessibility, affordability, and lug-around-ability of these virtual books. But losing yourself in a Kindle is losing yourself in an excellent story without losing yourself in a book.

New books smell of glue, and the pages are stiff. I love breaking in these books. Wrinkling the crisp page where the action begins—and rubbing my finger along the sharp edges in anxiety as the characters jump out of their previously unopened book and take their first-ever journey into the realm of my imagination. If the new book is good enough, it will soon cease to be a new book and will become a well-loved friend.

Old new-books are still as white as ironed linen, but bear the telltale fingerprints of thumbed pages. Sometimes the books have cardboard-colored paper. This kind of book absorbs the fingerprints, but will also tear far too easily.

These versions of new-books do not live well if they are well loved. Their paperback binding bends in half and their corners dent.

Old books of this same kind are similar—except they smell like old paper and have turned yellow. These books are the sort of book that you find in garage sales. They might have belonged to your mother and have to be discovered in your grandmother’s attic. These books are close to death—but they bear history. How old was Mom when she read this Trixie Belden book? Did she laugh when I laughed? Is that her peanut-butter fingerprint in the corner?

But all of these paperback books feel like rough paper and/or plastic. They smell like it, too. And they certainly look the part. Not necessarily a bad thing...

Hardback books are hardier. Generally, you only buy hardback books for those precious stories you will read and re-read over and over. For our family, that’s the classics like Jane Austen, and books like The Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Harry Potter, school books, some nice religious books, and just a few random books. Hardback means special in some way. If I pick up a hardback book, I expect a treasure worth more than one read. Of course, many paperback books qualify as these treasures. Unfortunately, you just can’t get them/afford them in hardback.

We have several versions of hardback books. Their pages tend to fall out due to their size, the number of times read, and the glue binding. There are hardback books that are simply a paperback with a hard cover—they have a nice print of the front illustration on front. There are the all too common jacket hardback books.

I detest book jackets. They fall all over the place—and the presence of a jacket means that the book cover itself is not hardy enough to weather the world on its own. There is one good thing about jackets, though. Some jacketed books have a nice plain cover with a simple gold title and maybe a design on the cover. And the jacket gives you the additional option of a full-color illustration (along with the somewhat annoying text on the back cover describing the book—good for learning about a new book but otherwise useless in a good quality hardback). The jackets are only good if they let you have both a picture cover, and a nice plain cover!

No, my favorite books are the good-quality hardback books. They have a sturdy cover of either fake leather or (preferably) or are clothbound. Preferably the pages are thick and soft, the cover will have a simple  design, and the binding is sewn rather than glued. Hopefully it has some well-drawn illustrations and a legible size font. We have some books that are like this—a whole shelf dedicated to Jane Austen, Dickens, and other classic novels. Nick got The Hobbit for his birthday, which is a wonderful book.

Even better are the old books from ages past. The sturdy books that have survived many, many decades. Just imagine who the past readers were! Perhaps a Victorian read this very book over a century ago! Or a young child might have read this during World War II! These are the sorts of books that do not accompany you on car rides... or the bathroom. :)