I love reading and hence,
often find myself at my local library and in bookstores. The other day when I was at the library, I
suddenly realized that I've always had these few thoughts about libraries and
bookstores that have been floating around in my head since the time I was a
kid.
1. This place is like a city in itself. Like an artists' colony. Where the best, also-rans and mediocre folks stand side-by-side, proudly flaunting their titles on their spine.
2. Don't these books get tired standing all the time? I mean, I'm sure they'd love to lie down on their front and back once in a while, like we humans do while sleeping.
3. I often see people picking up books from one section, say Fiction and keep them in another section, say Non-Fiction, when they decide they don't want to buy or issue it. At such times, these books must be feeling so awkward, being in another territory. Do the books of that section give them the cold-shoulder treatment till an attendant returns them to their correct section? Or do they exchange friendly banter? I wonder.
1. This place is like a city in itself. Like an artists' colony. Where the best, also-rans and mediocre folks stand side-by-side, proudly flaunting their titles on their spine.
2. Don't these books get tired standing all the time? I mean, I'm sure they'd love to lie down on their front and back once in a while, like we humans do while sleeping.
3. I often see people picking up books from one section, say Fiction and keep them in another section, say Non-Fiction, when they decide they don't want to buy or issue it. At such times, these books must be feeling so awkward, being in another territory. Do the books of that section give them the cold-shoulder treatment till an attendant returns them to their correct section? Or do they exchange friendly banter? I wonder.
4. What happens during the night-time, after the library or bookstore shuts down? Do they all come out and party, play, stretch themselves and then hurriedly go back to their shelves as the day breaks? Because I swear when I go to the library on consecutive days, sometimes I see some books on a completely different shelf than where they were the day before. Well, I now know this is because someone else must have shifted their place, but I was a kid when this struck me. Such thoughts tend to occur at that age.
5. Finally, this is the one thought that troubles me even today, whenever I step inside a library or bookshop. I can't help thinking how books must be feeling so very suffocated being shut all the time. Especially the titles which people browse through rarely. I look at them, standing straight and shut. I hear their silent cries, imploring us to open them and devour what they have to offer. At such times, I feel like opening each one of them and reading them.
Well, these are just my
thoughts, but I feel we all should read more.
Adding to what you've mentioned, read what Aakar Patel has to say about library/bookshelves - http://ow.ly/foEIY (if you haven't already).
ReplyDeleteKeep sharing.