I LIKE PAPER.......I'M OLD FASHIONED THAT WAY!

Throughout my life, I have had two constants, art and books.

As a very young child I would get lost in books. My grandfather read me Treasure Island and Black Beauty I don't know how many times.

When I was in school I would take out as many books as I was allowed. I loved the look of the library card and seeing who had read the book before me. I especially liked to be the first to sign my name on a new card. In High School I spend most of my lunch hour in the library I loved the quiet and being surrounded by my favourites, Bram Stoker, George Orwell, C.S. Lewis, Harper Lee ( To Kill A Mockingbird is my favourite book.)

I have the same feeling about books now as when I was given my first book to read. To touch the cover and binding of a book and open the pages to the wonder held within. The magic of the journey you are about to take and the characters you will meet, some you will love and some you may despise. The tears shed and the smile brought to your face with each chapter. The longing for the adventure to be just a little longer as you reach the end.

There is nothing like spending hours in a bookstore. The thousands of possibilities. Finding just the right one and taking it home. I love to spend a rainy afternoon engrossed in a book, turning each page and feeling the paper touch my finger tips making sure to never bend the back. I sip my tea and get lost in a good book.

This is not a book. There is no way you will ever convince me that these are as good as books.

Recently a friend of mine who is also a book groupie, told me he had one of these and he loved it. I was shocked. "How can you say that is as good as a book, it has no pages." " Yes that is true" he said " but, I can take it on vacation and it does not take up as much space as a paper book and I can make the letters as big as I want." I asked how much it cost to buy a book for this and he told me it was around the same for a new release in hard cover as a regular book. "But you don't have the book later." was my response.

And what about the bookmarks. I love bookmarks. I have quite a collection of them.

I fear for the day that there are no longer paper books. That a child will not know the joy of touching the pages.

And what about our libraries? And book stores? Are we coming to an age when there will no longer be rows of books lining shelves in libraries and little old books shops. I cannot bear the thought of not going into a shop and seeing the shelves sagging under the weight of all of the knowledge and adventures waiting to be had.

This is how I feel.

I will forever get lost in the pages of a book. I will hold them, smell them, and love them like old friends. I will sit in the library for hours in the quiet enjoying every moment of my book not rolling my finger across a screen to turn a page.