The Books that Make Us

I love paperback books.

I am of the mind, they are far superior to their clunky, heavy, non flexible, bulky, hardcover predecessors.

I love flipping half the book around itself while reading.

I love the worn in look of a well loved book. The lines on the spine. The ever present curve of the cover. The creases of dog eared pages. The sticky notes or ripped, lined scraps of paper I wrote a note on, stuck in the pages.

Paperback books are infinitely more cozy than their hardback cousins. They feel more inviting, less intimidating, more carefree and casual. They’re the kind of book, you fold over your lap, on the coziest, crisp, fall day. A fire dances in the fireplace and a warm cup of coffee sends up plums of steam, close by.

Their usually smaller, easier to bend and shove in a purse or bag. Easier to hold one handed as you sip toasty comfort from your favorite mug.

Paperbacks encapsulate the epitome of why I love books. Why I will never own a kindle. (You can quote me on that.) The tangible is too precious to me.

I know part of my intentional love started with something extraordinary specific and superiorly random. The way Tyler, in Remember Me, rolls up his notebooks (the leather bound ones he writes to his dead brother in) and stuffs them in his back pocket. There is something endlessly romantic about that to me. The love is clearly shown in the wear.

(Now that I’m thinking about it, Jess from Gilmore Girls also did that with paperbacks. Huh.)

I sit here, and truly believe all of the former but, I feel like I must also briefly mention there is something special about old hardcover books. They have the beautiful old book smell that paperbacks don’t quite have. I’ll give them that. They have the crinkly feel and sound when you open them that paperbacks don’t. I’ll give them that too. The bring forth magical images of times long since past. They radiate history, in the best way. I’ll give hardbacks that too.

However when given the option, I have and always will grab excitedly for the familiar flexible comfort, of the paperback.