A Big Book

If you have read Cornelia Funke's book InkHeart, you will have recognized some of ideas in the previous blog. This is one of my favorite new authors and books. Many of the descriptions the author uses to explain how the main character, Meg, feels about books echo my own.
Meg sleeps with a book under her pillow. "Go on, admit it," her father says, "the book whispers its story to you at night." When she holds the book in her hand; "Its pages rustle promisingly".
Every description of books rings true for me so I won't quote them all.
I think it is all the descritions in this book that make me wonder wether some of that will be lost with e books. If you don't open the pages, how can you remember where you were the first time you read it?
One good thing about e books is that you really can't judge a book by its' cover because there often is no cover. A book will be judged on its content not its' appearance. I took this idea from InkHeart. I read to my students from a copy of the book covered in brown paper. I got to the unimaginable part where there is actually a single book Meg is not allowed to read. Not only that but it isn't covered with Mo's craft of leather and satin-but in brown paper. The students began to whisper to each other "That's the book" as I read from my brown paper covered copy.
This is another one of the books I adore that was made into a movie. The movie was fine but I still prefer the book. All 534 delicious pages of it.

A World of Books

I love reading! When I was getting ready for Kindergarten, I couldn't wait to learn to read. My mom bought me a book called "Things in My House" and when I could read it(memorized), she gave it to me for keeps. I was off! Imagine my disappointment when I realized I wasn't going to learn how to read in Kindergarten. No matter. I filled my bed with books to the point where there was no room for me!

Even now I have a stack of books beside the bed, on the night stand, on the table. I have books in my classroom (and in many other classrooms). I have books in boxes, books in book cases. I have a long list of books that I want. I have pictures of book covers.

What is new in my world of books is audio books. Every night I listen to The Chronicles of Narnia on my ipod. I even have ebooks that I read on my ipod. I NEVER thought I would exchange the smell and feel of a book for a piece of technology.

Maybe what fueled my acceptance of audio books and e books is that I am running out of space!

I have to choose my books very carefully now because I don't have a personal library. Audio books and ebooks are smaller. They are not as pretty but I have to ask myself: Do I like a book because it is pretty or because of the words that make up the story?