Essay: A Book is Alive by Balu George

In this essay, Balu George shares his experiences of growing in the world of books and finding it difficult to Kindle today.

A Kindle is not alive in the way a book is. For one, you can feel the texture of the pages between your thumb and forefinger as though you are examining an uncooked grain of rice. You can smell the pages of a book. These sensory experiences make a book what it is. 

The smell of an old Hardy Boys book reminds you of what you felt years ago when you read it for the first time, the sense of adventure, and thrill.  The smell of, Of Mice and Men,  your first introduction to literary fiction, has a smell of its own. Maybe it is a reminder of a cup of coffee that spilled onto a page. 

Every book lover must go through a rite of passage, which happens in the school library. ( At least in the 90’s) . On the last row, Noddy and Thomas the train. On the row in front of it, Famous Five, Hardy Boys  Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie. Then John Grisham and Arthur Hailey and then on the first row, Graham Greene and Updike. There is a magic in this rite of passage.