I love books, I’ve always have. My mom taught me how to read when I was barely 4, and by 5 I could read on my own an entire book. I love owning books, new books, old books, nothing beats the smell of those books. The sound when you first break the back of your paperback, the extra weight in your bag because you have a hardcover in it and you just can’t leave it at home. I love how sometimes I walk in front of a bookstore and I have to retrace my steps because this tiny book is “looking” at me and I just have to have it.
I come from a family of readers; we try not to buy the same books, so we can pass them around, kind of a family book club. I love the library we have back home, full of books, all well read. When my mom died books were my refuge, I stopped playing during school break and I would just sit under the sun to read everything that fell into my hands. And I haven’t been able to stop since. Every birthday and Christmas, at least one book will make it to my list, regardless of the fact that I was under 10 years old. And when I started earning my own money, I started getting books whenever I could.
I had my first book heartbreak when I was 17 and left my parents home. I had to leave so many books behind because they weren’t really mine, and let’s just say that the relation with my father wouldn’t have allowed me to take them with me. And then I moved with my aunt, and started getting books again, her library (the one I was making reference to above, that’s the one I miss) was perfect, from the roof to the floor, next to a window so you can take your book and read until the sun goes down.
Then the second heartbreak came in…I move to a new country to continue my graduate studies, and once again I had to part with my books, except that this time, they were really mine, I just didn’t have the space to bring them all with me. So I did what I thought it was best, I gave them away to other fellow readers, where I knew they will be appreciated. Once installed I needed 2 things to make the place a home: my stereo to cover the silence around me and a library that I could start filling up. By now, I have 2 libraries in my living room, partially filled with my books and my roommates. Best deal ever, the sale the public library had: all books were 1 dollar!!!!. I bought so many, I had to drag my bag on the floor. I keep adding books to my To Read list, and I keep wanting a wall to wall library…
Books take you whenever, wherever in a blink of an eye. Books can move me to tears or make me laugh until my tummy aches. Books have always kept me company, Books are always ready for you, and you will not have to catch up with the next show if tonight you didn’t manage to read. A book can be read by thousands of people and yet deliver a different story to each one of them, since the images created by every individual are unique albeit inspired by the same words. Books…books are always home to me.
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