“A book is a dream (that) you hold in your hand(s).” Neil Gaiman
P. Craig Russell of DC Comics fame was asked decades ago to draw the National Library Association’s annual promotional posters. His 2003 art featured The Sandman with no words added. Other versions show the Neil Gaiman quote behind his popular graphic novel character. Both refer to physical books—not an eBook.
Real books are in the DNA of cultures around the world. Book lovers and book collectors own not only books, but book plates, bookmarks, and bookends for their bookshelves and bookcases. They (we) patronize bookstores, book shops and book stands. Libraries are filled with book stacks and book racks and move books around on book trucks. The underserved in rural, tribal, and suburban and urban areas in the United States still have over 650 book mobiles providing access to learning and books. Currently Barbershop Books is a national program to get books into the hands of children who read while getting a haircut. In Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, free books are mailed to a child’s home from birth to age five, children who have dreams often starting with something they saw in a book. Over two million books have been shipped to kids in five countries! First Book and Little Free Library are just two other models of ways of promoting literacy by handing books to beginning readers.
Binderies use book clamps and book muslin, and illustrators create alluring book jackets. Our postal service still offers an affordable Library Rate for mailing books; in the UK, it’s called Book Post.
Books require space, proper humidity and have heft. Moving companies offer special small heavy-duty cartons referred to as book boxes. We pack and label and heave them to the next apartment. We join book clubs in our new town.
We take inventory of our collection, donate, or sell them or pass them on to a friend. Books are great to give as lasting gifts and sign with love to a child to mark an occasion. Better World Books is an example of recycling at its absolute best. But where do the books go? Library book sales, thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales, all places filled with the treasures we can never, ever throw away. Places where people not addicted to screens peacefully browse and select what to add to their home library.
A professor named Leah Price researched and wrote in the Harvard Gazette about books as acceptable objects. Notably, a book can hide your face on the subway, serve as a paperweight and, if large enough, decorate a coffee table with class! Using a book as a door stopper: unacceptable!
Historically there have been those who oppose books, not just banning certain ones, but destroying them. One of the largest public book burnings took place in Berlin on May 10, 1933. Referred to as a ‘literary purge,’ the perpetrators were censoring ideologies they considered dangerous in the most barbaric way. Helen Keller wrote a letter to students there saying: “History has taught you nothing if you think you can kill ideas.” Nearly 100,000 marched in New York City for six hours in protest to the Nazi book burnings. On the same day three other cities and 34 university towns in America saw 40,000 more rally to oppose this type of tyranny.
A ‘book oath’ is defined as an oath taken on a bible, such as when Barack Obama was sworn in on Lincoln’s bible. It shows a kind of relationship between two readers-- past and present. On ordinary days, readers of used or borrowed books may find marginal notes, or a slip of paper, or even a coffee stain that gives pause wondering about the person who held this book previously.
Bookless is a term that means having no books, uneducated or unaware of books. I call that tragic. On the other hand, my weekend is booked—holding something artificial intelligence can’t alter or erase. As the broom said to the book: Don’t worry; they came up with the vacuum and I’m still here. You’ll be fine.
Lilly Kauffman is a non-fiction writer who was privileged to work as both librarian and a teacher. Her essays, whether serious or humorous, capture the experiences that allow us to laugh and grieve. Family and faith inform her writings. She is currently working on several book projects: A Mother Grieves in Ink, Ampersand, and Lil Letters.