Book Cases
by Nick on January 8, 2012
For the last couple of hours I’ve been working in my girlfriend’s dad’s study. Those of you who know him will know that I’m either in a lot of trouble; or he’s overseas…
..Don’t worry it’s the latter!
His study features comfortable leather chairs, some persian rugs, a sturdy wooden desk with leather insets, and critically, book cases.
The book cases are filled to the brim with hundreds of books on his favourite topics: classic cars and history. A History of Motor Racing is straddled by The Ferrari Story and Lancia, while Britain at War props up various Tom Clancy volumes.
Sitting here, the realisation sets in that it’s fairly unlikely that my study will ever contain book cases. Everything I read these days comes in the digital form. I browse web-pages on my MacBook, read magazines on my iPad, and books on the Kindle. All of the written words that I consume today exist merely as 1s and 0s.
Pulling out a few of the books, their bent spines show where the reader may have put the book down and paused for a while – perhaps to enjoy a holiday view. Coffee stains give hints of late night reading, and dog ears, of the times when the reader’s eyes grew heavy and the following pages were left for another day.
Books tell more than just the story that is contained in their text.
It’s really quite sad that I’ll likely never have book cases in my study.
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