Nowadays, there are more ways to read than ever before. Audiobooks let you take the experience on the go, narrated by some truly talented voices that bring the stories to life. E-Books let you turn your phone or tablet into a digital library, making every book easily accessible at any time. Anyone who would claim that written media is dying hasn’t been paying attention.
Even so, you just can’t replace the feeling of a good ol’ printed book.
There’s something so relaxing about reading off of actual paper. I can’t even describe it, it’s just really nice. The feeling and sound of turning a page, of flipping through all the book at once for no reason other than you can. You don’t get that kinda feeling with E-Books.
Hardcover books make for a great display piece on your shelf. Though I don’t enjoy reading them as much as I do paperbacks. While they look nice, paperbacks are much lighter and more flexible, making them easy to read in bed at night or on the go.
Either way, they both share something incredible: the smell! Oh my god! Who needs crack when you can sniff a freshly bound book!
*So, dumb little story: my brother discovered a second-hand bookshop in town. When he got home, I found him with his nose in the pages. No, he wasn’t reading. He was just breathing it in. Literally. And my monkey-brain looked him dead in the eyes and said, “Yo bro, can I get a hit?” The two of us proceeded to pass the book back and forth, sniffing like we were sharing a blunt. Can E-Books provide that kinda experience? I think not!
Piggy-backing off that little story: book stores. You can’t have those without printed books. What, are you gonna stock all the shelves with Kindles and Amazon Fire and Ipads? I came to a book store, god dammit, not a T-Mobile!
Few places in the world put me at ease like a good book store. Browsing the shelves, finding works from authors I’d never heard of, taking my findings to the checkout line and finding even more quality stuff, it’s just so relaxing! It makes me feel like a scholar like you’d see in fantasy stories, dusting off long forgotten tomes to find his next discovery.
*Story time again! When I first started blogging back in 2018, I lived with my sister independently of our parents. Things took a turn for the worse, the specifics of which shall remain between myself and my family. When I was stressed, I’d head down town to the Barnes & Noble and just get lost in its shelves. That’s where I found my copies of ‘The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe’, ‘The Last Unicorn’, and ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, and a few more. All of which I still have to this day.
In the same vain, libraries would vanish without printed literature. And libraries are awesome, too! Sure, you get a free computer lab for students and their school work. But you know what I liked better as a teenager? Grabbing a book, sitting down, reading the first few chapters, then checking it out.
No, I didn’t have a lot of friends in school, why do you ask?
*One last story: while my family and I were preparing to move states, we needed to get out of the house often to not interfere with buyer tours. I’d always go down to the restaurant I worked for at the time, get some lunch, shoot the shit with my friends, etc. Once the dinner rush started, I’d make my way down to the town’s library, which was just two blocks away, finding a book, and reading until I got the all-clear to head home. I ended up re-reading the entirety of ‘Good Omens’ there. I’d never been more relaxed in my entire life.
*Except for that one day when a little girl decided to test her lungs’ screaming capacity. Which is partly why I don’t plan on having children.
If I’m being honest, I don’t really have a point to all of this. It isn’t like printed media is going anywhere anytime soon. Printed books are still doing fine, even more so thanks to the explosive growth of the manga industry (which helped cover the dramatic decline of the comics industry). It’s not like it’s some dying medium that we need to preserve like an endangered species.
I just wanted to rant about books. And bookstores. And libraries. There’s no real reason beyond the fact that I love them and I felt like celebrating them.
Okay, I’m done. Bye-bye. Have a good one.
Jonah's Books & Rants 
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