In my room, I have two bookshelves crammed full of my favourite volumes. I've even started having to place some horizontally on top of the others. I am a book lover; to me a holding a book is all part of the joy of reading. It saddens me to hear about e-books and books you can download onto your computer, iPod, or other device. I have nothing against them at all, sometimes they can be very useful and convenient, but I dread to think what would happen if they began to replace the books themselves. I need to hold a book when I'm reading it. To be able to open the cover as if I were opening a door, to smell the paper and listen to the pages rustle, whispering tantalizingly about the rest of the story I haven't read yet is a very important experience to me.
My room feels like a library. Honestly. And I love it! So many different stories surround me, so many different worlds. I love to be surrounded by my books. They are all beautiful and all of them are very special to me. It's as if they collect memories for me. I pick up At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald, a beautiful volume with illustrations by Jessie Willcox Smith, and remember how my sister gave it to me for a birthday present. Or my huge Lord of the Rings book, bound in black leather with gold leafed pages; my parents gave that to me for Christmas. I pick up my old paperback copy of The Little White Horse and am reminded of the first time I ever read it, when my dear friend lent her book to me. These memories are pressed like fairies in between the pages, waiting for me to pick the book up and open it so that they can flutter out and whisper laughingly in my ear.
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