BLACK and WHITE

I’m not going to ask if you have held, or seen, or smelled a book, because I know you have. I also know that you have gone to the library and perused the pieces of information you need to know. I can tell you, it’s a sanctuary there. The library is a refuge, a haven – a place where I can be, where anyone can be. It’s a place where I can relax my mind from all the craziness of the world outside its walls. The pages of the books being opened, being taken out of their places to be read and adored, being carried as though it were the greatest treasure there was – are all part of its melody and its magic.

            Books. They’re the heart and soul of the library. They have their own special place, in their own special shelf, and are screaming for people to open them. A book is filled with all the knowledge in the world and some can be revealed when one reads between the lines. When I open a book, I feel like I’m on the top of the world. I feel like I can do anything and be anyone. You know the sensation when you see the person you love the most and the only feeling you feel is happiness? That’s how I feel when I hold a book: pure happiness.

Reading their stories is another thing. Reading the story inside a book is a feeling I can’t truly express in words. Simply, there are no words to describe the feeling for it’s in the person who reads them. All I can tell you is that when reading a book, one must not only understand the plot, but also the emotions the author wants the reader to feel. You can imagine yourself as the hero/heroine in the story or add your own version to it. Imagine the scenes and the persons the story describes and make it your own. Each word in the book is a key to finding out the story in the story. Each book has its own smell; that smell tells the kind of story they want you to read. Cherish each book you own and the ones you borrow or see.

Read a book for the first time and you’ll be feeling what the characters feel. The excitement, the fear, the irritation when you’ve turned the last page yet you still want to know what happens next; and when you’ve read it for the hundredth time, you’ll discover that you’re feeling the very emotions you felt from the first time you read it. I know I do – ever since my father put a book in my hands when I was 9 years old. And not those really BIG picture books (they’re a “sight for sore eyes”), but those books in black and white, carrying such promise and company for a young girl. However, as incredible as reading books sounds, we must remember to read and learn from the books, but not live in the books. Life’s too big to be put inside a book.

“I hope you’re not one of those idiots who collect rare books just because they’re rare, are you?”

Mo couldn’t help smiling. “No,” he said. “I want to read it, that’s all. I just want to read it.”

-       Cornelia Funke, Inkheart