I love the smell of #Books

On a recent trip to Toronto, I had the pleasure of spending time with an amazing 80+ year old lady who was still living life to the fullest.  She was a friend of a friend and we were all together enjoying a wonderful supper.  Over coffee the subject turned to books and reading and she made two comments that really made me smile but also reminded me that I also felt the same way...she said "I love the way my favorite books smell" and her second comment was she called her favorite books "old friends".  I too, over the years, have kept certain books around.  I love the stories, or perhaps it was a special gift that had a meaning more than just what the book was about and/or just the fact that I couldn't part with them.

I started thinking about this and wondered if in the future anyone would love the way their "Kindle" or Ipad" smelt and if they would still be around long enough to be called "old friends"!!  Everything has its place and there will always be those who love books and those that find the new electronic devices more "their cup of tea".

I myself have been collecting for a few years now, books by my most favorite author ever..."Enid Blyton".  If it wasn't for her and my primary teacher Ms Blight, I doubt I would have grown to love reading and books as much as I do.  The "Secret Seven" and the "Famous Five" series were books I just couldn't put down, reading under the covers with a torch as it was way past my bed time and every spare moment I could find would have me clutching the newest edition from the school library or if I was lucky enough, my very own copy.

Where did all those Enid Blyton books of mine go?  I know I had several, but over the years they got stored away and lost to me.  I did ask my Mum once and she said probably given to a "Jumble Sale", they were no longer at home.  I keep wondering if somewhere, someone has a copy of  "Five on a Treasure Island" with my name scrawled across the first page of the book in pen...I hope they are taking really good care of it.

For now I continue to try and find some of my "old friends", published in the fifties and sixties, in some obscure book store in Ontario or in my travels back to the UK, maybe I should check out the internet, someone somewhere might just be selling them.  It would sure be nice to just flick the pages slowly and smell some of them again.

Debbie Black
www.inktreemarketing.com