Maybe it's just fatherhood that has me enamored of the list format lately. (Though it may be all the micro-blogging I endeavored last week.) At any rate, I got to thinking on a cool, coffee-soaked Sunday morning about "why books"? I mean, they are so enduring, even with and somewhat in spite of new technology. Maybe they'll be wiped out by the time I'm wondering what my daughter is doing with her life, but even if so the contemporary western "book" has had remarkable endurance with very little major modification through human history.
Books are...
- Ritual.
- Mass-produced unique objects.
- Containers.
- A symbol.
- Status symbols.
- Efficient.
- Artifacts.
- Customizable.
- Generally speaking: commonly recognizable amongst different nations, races and creeds.
- Varied.
- Amazing ballast.
- Delicate.
- Enduring.
- Lovely.
- Compact.
- Heavy.
- Controversial. Inflammatory.
- Awfully flammable.
- Powerful. Hilarious.
- Prone to lending, borrowing and stealing.
- Memorable.
- Recycled.
- Great gifts, every time.
- One of very few society-approved, in-bed activities.
- Exciting.
- Addictive.
- Quiet.
- Sexy.
- Tactile. Interactive. Sensual.
- Difficult to excise absolutely.
- Personal. Precious.
- Open to interpretation.
- Frequently Misinterpreted.
- My favorite.
- L'objet d'art.
- Seeds. Fruit. Fertility itself.
- Kind of cumbersome. (But only seemingly and lately.)
- Inimitable.
- Relatively harmless; when unread.
- Sometimes sexually titillating.
- Often thrown.
- Like target-symbols for uninvited strong opinions.
- Accessible (by-and-large).
- Things.
- Neat-o.
- Old fashioned. Ever new.
- Possibly all things to everybody.
- The permanent (?) record.
- The great dialogue.
- Legendary.
- Reminders.
- Non-discriminant.
- Breeze-makers.
- Proofed, and full of errors.
- Lovely. Loved. Despised.
- Often begun. Often unfinished.
- Bound and determined.
- Full of leaves.
- Full of words.
- Off-set. Marginal. Lettered. Voluminous. I'll stop.
- Paper-cut central.
- Used.
- Pulpy.
- Former trees.
- Ancient.
- Ever-green.
- Legitimate excuses to not go out.
- Grateful for librarians.
- Typically not waterproof.
- Unrestrained by conventional measures of time.
- Legion.
- Transformative.
- The most detailed and specific expression of any one person's idea.
- Basic. Luxurious. Necessary.
- Kind of a big deal.
- Totally low-maintenance.
- The kind of thing that can change your mind, for good.
- Not unlike onions, French pastries and dressing for variable temperatures.
- Like metaphors, and are similes.
- Worlds unto themselves.
- Words, words, words.
- A reason to want to ride the subway.
- A potent argument for tradition.
- Change, encapsulated.
- Rather taken for granted.
- Sort of like birds. In a way. Just me? Okay....
- Ours, to do with as we please.
- Not without their advocates.
- Beautiful in the quietest way.
- Strapped. Clubbed. Bagged. Fair'd.
- My daughter's favorite objects.
- Good.