In today’s world there is a day for everything. We celebrate everything under the sun so when the World Book Day rolls around, a humble author like me has no recourse but to join the bandwagon and shout from the blogosphere just how much I love books. That part, at least, is absolutely true.
For as far back as I can remember, books have been omnipresent in my life. My earliest memory is of an illustrated magazine version of Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five. And then began a journey which rarely saw me without my nose buried within the pages of a book. The school library became my first haunt and every Thursday we were allowed to borrow a book for one week. The thrill of browsing through those dog eared, bounded novels was something I looked forward to every week. From Famous Five & Secret Seven to Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, from Hercules Poirot & Miss Marple to the complex, layered characters of Sidney Sheldon, books have opened my eyes to a world beyond what I saw around me.
My English essays in school drew from the rich imagination of The Faraway Tree series and I discovered the power of storytelling through the short stories of O. Henry. I still remember reading The Last Leaf as part of our curriculum and marvelling at the sheer mastery of prose. It was reading that fuelled my desire to give form to my thoughts and lay them in front of the world.
Today physical books, and by extension, bookstores are fast becoming a thing of the past. The convenience of ebooks and audio books cannot be ignored and are amply demonstrated by the exponential increase in their popularity. I, too, read a lot of ebooks but i find some books to be more approachable only when I can thumb through their pages rather than swiping from side to side. My bookshelf is a family I come home to and the sight of those well loved tomes sitting there faithfully never fails to lift my spirits.
Truth is, ebooks are here to stay. They offer a low cost, space saving alternative to hardcovers and paperbacks taking up precious storage space. However, no bibliophile can deny the allure of the musty smell of a physical book or fail to savor the feel of the pages between the fingers. This World Book Day, let us all set aside our Kindles and Nooks and pick up a book. Let us be booklovers again.
