My Old Friends | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: My Old Friends | Previous Challenge Entry
By Maria Egilsson
04/15/10
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As a small child I fell in love with books. One of my earliest memories is falling asleep to the quiet murmur of my parents’ voice as they sat by my bed reading. Another memory, is sitting on my mother’s lap as we looked at big, bright picture books together. I understand what George Robert Gissing meant when he wrote, “I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.” Each book has its own distinct smell and feel. I admit it; I have a love affair with books. An old Chinese Saying states: “To read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new friend; to read it for a second time is to meet an old one.” This is what I feel about books. They are made to be touched, handled and re-read. A good book is like a friend that you never really forget.

There is an excitement I feel when I start a new book. Reading becomes an intimate journey where I enter worlds full of adventure with captivating characters. There are some books that are so alive that it leaves me disorientated when I finally turn the last page. It’s like invisible threads wrapped around my mind and hard to shake free from its web. In the privacy of my own mind, I can conjure up visions and images as words unfold. These little sheets of paper bound together hold a power that cannot be explained.

I often savor the thought of spending time with a book at the end of the day. I know it is waiting for me, enticing me to enter another time and place. I think it was Francis Bacon that wrote “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Each one has its own taste and flavor. The books on my bookshelf are like friends waiting to greet this reader at the beginning and end of each day.

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