Post 2: What is a Book?

 

A book is a portal to another world. When I read books I get transported to different worlds created through the words on the pages. A book is almost like a time machine. You can step into a time machine and turn back the time and go back to that world that is different from the world we live in today. You can also turn forward the time and go to a futuristic world. All of these ways let you escape from the world you live in today and you can forget your troubles and just relax. In the excerpts we read from the book The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books, I agreed with a piece from each excerpt we read. From Tom Pizza interviews Tom Piazza, he mentions “[y]ou make a world.” This just further solidifies my argument previously stated that you create a whole new world by reading books. From “A Book is a Place” by Joe Meno, he was basically saying that any technology that you use to read a book is fine, it’s not the way that we read, it’s the story that we are reading that matters. I agree with this because I don’t think it necessarily matters how we read a book or a story, it’s the fact that we are reading a book or a story that really counts. As long as we are reading, the story is still being told and that world is still being explored. In “Home Word Bound” by Nancy Jo Sales, she says “[t]here’s something about the physicality of a book, the way it looks and feels and even smells … that makes it a living, breathing companion.” This is a comparison between physical books and the technology we can use to read books. The fact that there is a legitimate book that you are holding that makes the story more real. Personally I like actual, physical books better than I do books that are on a kindle or an iPad because I like the fact that you can hold it in your hands and physically flip the pages and even smell the book. Yes, I love the smell of newly printed books, or even older books that I buy at half-price books. I can’t explain why I love that smell, I just do. At the same time, I have no problem with books that are on the kindle or on an iPad. It’s really up to the person that’s reading. I don’t mind the technology because it’s faster to download books and have them right there with you. You can have thousands of books on your technology’s bookshelf, which is a lot easier and more convenient than carrying a thousand physical books because that would get heavy and less convenient.