As a child growing up, I loved books with all my heart. I loved nothing more than reading and would go once a week to the library and rent a stack of books. I would sneak a torch into my bed and read under the covers, no matter how many times it got me into trouble.
As a teenager, when I started getting a small income of my own, my addiction to books became worse and worse. I would spend so much money on books I couldn't afford anything else, and as for reading, I could read a book in an evening if I chose to, so I often would.
Now, as a young adult, I ended up with stacks and stacks of books. I had a 6ft long shelf, stacked upwards until books almost touched my bedroom ceiling, more on my desk, and even more under my bed. I had more books than I knew what to do with. But then I had to move away to university and I couldn't take all my books. To make matters worse, while I was moved away, my sister came to live at home, until she got married one year before I completed my degree.
All of my books were send into the attic. Boxed up and stored away. The shelf was dismantled, my dyslexic sister has no love of reading and wanted to redecorate while I was gone. I chose then to carry on anyway, but university meant I was moving a lot. I couldn't have all the books I wanted, if have to throw them away in order to make room for more.
It was my grandmother who gave me an alternative. My first Christmas after starting my degree, she and my parents banded in and bought me a kindle as my 'big' present. I had, until this point, resisted e-readers. I loved books. The smell of a new book compared to an old one, the feel of a hefty book in your hands, the satisfaction of cracking a spine (yes I'm one of those people).
However, I saw the practicality of owning an e-reader. I could have an entire library of books in my handbag with no more weight than my phone. Later, when I got a smartphone, I could have that library on my phone using an app. So I was grateful. Though the kindle wasn't my precious books, it gave me back what I loved the most; reading.
And then the day came when I started to love my kindle. I feel incomplete without it in my handbag. When on a 12 hour flight I had a panic attack, due to my claustrophobia and fear of flying, it prevented me from getting worse and kept my mind off my terror.
When I've needed a break from the world, I take my kindle and pop in my headphones and lose myself in fictional worlds. And because it's so small and light, I take it everywhere. I always have books to read ready and waiting. I can buy more at the touch of a button, and one thing no one tells you is that e-books are significantly cheaper, so while I haven't saved any money because I still have an addiction, I have many more adventures to read for that money I've spent.
Books. They have kept me sane in an insane world. And having an e-reader has made them even more accessible and portable. I still love books. If a day comes when the libraries and bookshops shut, the haunts of my childhood and teenage years gone, I will be sad. But we never have to lose the magic of reading.
And of course, despite having an entire library to choose from, I will never find a day where I am not looking for the next book to read, or have a stack unread that I keep promising myself one day...
Rei ♡
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