You can always tell the sign of a good book; firstly, it is difficult to put it down and you want to read it whenever you have a spare moment, other things that you enjoy take a back seat as you are invited into another person's point of view, and ultimately their life. This first point is somewhat obvious, but nonetheless necessary to underline. The second is that you are constantly thinking about the book and it's characters, going over the story just to see if any crucial clues were left un-understood, you begin to turn the story over in your mind, looking for any clues as to where it will take you next, like being at the helm of a drifting boat in uncharted waters, there is excitement and anticipation around every corner, yet you must wait until the boat reaches these landmarks before you can see around the next bend or twist. Thirdly; the narrative and the way that the book is written seeps into your soul; the words and sentence structures of a good book can stay with you long after the story has ended. I have always noticed that after watching a film, I forget the story, (unless I engage with the thoughts and words of the film)and I will inevitably watch it a couple more times to be reminded of the whole story. I can watch the same film within a few years of each viewing, forgetting that I have seen the film previously; not so with a book. A book captures me and doesn't let me go until I've been satisfied with reading it to the end; the characters become friends and enemies, I inhabit their living space and watch as they go about their daily lives, I am the un-written character within the book, the by-stander, the 'audience' to the joyous ocassions and atrocities. The book itself holds you captive and that is why, after a single reading of a story, I will remember more of what I've read in that book than watching the same movie a few times. Fourthly, you become a silent on-looker in the book, and the book becomes a friend, a friend that divulges all their secrets and intimacies, not like a film, so that when you come to the end of the book you are saddened at the friend's departure. Your mind seeks to hold onto the story and to turn it over in your mind, and to tease out the meaning and value and worth of what was being relayed to you in this narrative. Books enlighten you into the nature of another's psyche, I think one person has said before that the eyes are the window to the soul, I believe that reading a book has the same affect as looking into someone's soul; into the way they think, move and breathe. As the reader you are the magician to some extent, you can conjure up faces of the various characters, you can also conjure up foreign lands that have been un-visited by you, of beaches, palms, coconuts and wars. Books are like the voices of those who were left behind, and we can still hear them now, like Austen, Dickens and Bronte; the classic authors are still telling their tales to us. When we read a book we have to believe it and imagine ourselves there. I think if you cannot do this then the book you are reading isn't one that is capturing your imagination, and therefore I would humbly suggest, that book will not be enjoyed as much as another, it might not even get finished by yourself, and might sit looking half read/half loved, with a bookmark that marks the place where you fell out of love with it. Now e-readers, a new invention (which I dislike)takes away the magic of being able to own books; not just to read them from the same lifeless black or white screen. To really enjoy a book you need to feel the softness of the cover, to smell the richness of the pages, some people will bend the books to their favourite places, and re-read them over and over again. Some books might be so loved that some of their pages are nearly falling out, and their owner might have to mend them. Books are a labour of love, and I believe that these e-readers and not as warm and friendly as holding a good book in your hands, feeling it's lightness and holding down the pages when the wind blows through them, of shielding it from the rain, of maybe accidentally squashing a bug between some of the pages, later finding it in years to come. With e-readers you cannot do this. Albeit they would be good for carrying a few books or even a whole library in one hand, they are not a satisfying as the act of holding a book in your hands. Imagine if we didn't have the books that we have in libraries today, some of these books are rare and priceless, the e-readers will take the value of books away, and this is sad. A book is like a piece of old jewellery, stay with me on this one; when you wear a piece of jewellery from someone you get a feel for the person who once owned it, depending on what the piece looks like, how it was cared for and the feeling that an object brings with it, a sense of history. Now this is similar to a book, you can tell how much the book was loved as to how read it looks, and whether the pages are slightly yellowed by age at the edges, whether the person has underlined any key passage that was their favourite or whether they graffitied their name on the opening page of the book. All these things would be missed.
Right, so there are my reasons for being a book lover!
The book I've just finished reading today was Mister Pip, a good read. Some of the language is beautiful in it, and it is a book about appreciating books/stories which I found interesting.
So, that was my very small treatise on why books are better than e-books!
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