A Book is a Memory

A book is a memory. The ability a book has to take you back in time, to rekindle the emotions you once felt, and to remind you of the lessons that you have learned is a pleasure that can only come from the carefully thought-out words that lie on the otherwise blank sheet of paper. The stories portrayed through authors’ writings bring about forgotten feelings that have either slipped away through lack of desire to remember them or the busy lives that people of this age tend to live. Whether it is the sadness of losing a loved one or the joy a newborn baby brings, books can make a person feel these emotions over again through dynamic characters. The characters found in books give readers a way to relate to what they are reading. When reading, it is hard not to remember certain events that have happened throughout your life because the vibrant characters continually portray you and others that have made lasting impressions on you, ergo, a book is a forgotten memory.

Nancy Jo Sales says, “There’s something about the physicality of a book, the way it looks and feels and even smells—the notes written in the margins—that makes it a living, breathing companion (who like yourself, is actually dying).” This says it all about the modern controversy of books versus eBooks, and I completely agree.

In today’s world, people are plugged in almost every way possible through television, computers, phones, iPods, and the list goes on. I have always seen a book as place that I can go to get away from real life. Reading I can do without plugging something in or charging its battery, all I need is a book and a quiet place to sit. Without books we would be lost and according to Tom Piazza, “[We would] get no sense of the scale of things, of the nature of the artist’s ambition.” It is the feel and the smell of a book that gives it meaning in the world.

Why is the living book such a vital instrument to our existence? Because it reminds us of our own livelihood and it gives us hope for the future. It makes us believe in the greater good and that our society is not completely crumbling to the ground from the bad influences and extreme technology that keeps finding its way into our future generations hands.