The Day I Fell in Love With a Book
Nov. 29th, 2000 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silversolitaireSince yesterday I am the proud owner of the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume Two. I find it hard to describe the feelings I had when I opened it for the first time. I'm feeling so silly about it, but it's all real.
You must first try to imagine the dimensions of this book. It's easily 4 inches thick and must weigh around 60 ounches. It's got 2963 pages which are so thin that you can hardly touch them. This is how it looks:
When I opened it and heard the gentle rustle of the pages, I felt love. As silly as it may sound, but I did. I felt like this book contains everything I love and if I only knew a 10th of what's written in there, I could die a happy woman. I almost got wet eyes. I held it close to my face and took a deep breath, smelling the scent of eternal wisdom. I gently leafed through the book, afraid the break the delicate pages, in complete awe aboutthe enormous information packed into these pages. Whole books are in there! Endless varieties of poets, informations, listings... There are no words. I think, if I was to take only one book with me when I had to go to jail, or whatever, this would be it.
When I touch those thin pages, I feel like all my friends were sitting together at one table and we were laughing and joking, having a great time. There's Byron, smiling at Shelley and lifting his glass of wine with a nod. On the other side is Coleridge, involved in a heated discussion with Wordsworth, while Keats is watching and smiling. Mary Shelley is looking at Blake's drawings, throwing me an amused look. I know I only have the 2nd volume (Romantic period and up), but still, there's also Marlowe and Shakespeare right next to me. Oh, and of course the American writers, too. My dear lady Dickinson, Whitman, Emerson, Atwood... Ah, we're one happy family.
This is how I feel when having this book in my hands... am I silly?
You must first try to imagine the dimensions of this book. It's easily 4 inches thick and must weigh around 60 ounches. It's got 2963 pages which are so thin that you can hardly touch them. This is how it looks:
When I opened it and heard the gentle rustle of the pages, I felt love. As silly as it may sound, but I did. I felt like this book contains everything I love and if I only knew a 10th of what's written in there, I could die a happy woman. I almost got wet eyes. I held it close to my face and took a deep breath, smelling the scent of eternal wisdom. I gently leafed through the book, afraid the break the delicate pages, in complete awe aboutthe enormous information packed into these pages. Whole books are in there! Endless varieties of poets, informations, listings... There are no words. I think, if I was to take only one book with me when I had to go to jail, or whatever, this would be it.
When I touch those thin pages, I feel like all my friends were sitting together at one table and we were laughing and joking, having a great time. There's Byron, smiling at Shelley and lifting his glass of wine with a nod. On the other side is Coleridge, involved in a heated discussion with Wordsworth, while Keats is watching and smiling. Mary Shelley is looking at Blake's drawings, throwing me an amused look. I know I only have the 2nd volume (Romantic period and up), but still, there's also Marlowe and Shakespeare right next to me. Oh, and of course the American writers, too. My dear lady Dickinson, Whitman, Emerson, Atwood... Ah, we're one happy family.
This is how I feel when having this book in my hands... am I silly?
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darest thou now
Date: 2000-11-29 01:29 pm (UTC)i feel inspired to quote whitman at this point:
"darest thou now oh soul, walk out with me towards the unknown region where neither ground is for the feet - nor any path to follow"
enjoy discovering the unknown regions of your book
cu
sabrina
Silly? Heavens, no!
Date: 2000-11-30 03:28 pm (UTC)Finding several such books is what life - in the opinion of some - is all about.
FWIW, you're not being silly at all...
Cheers...
no subject
Date: 2001-01-23 04:43 am (UTC)