Day 24, and we come to books. Well, it took me long enough, you might be thinking.
And you’d be right.
Okay, so, books. It’s not just what we learn from them, or the echoes that call to us from the page and remind us of things we might have almost completely forgotten. It’s the smell of books. The feel of the pages. The need for them.
I have bookcases, like anybody else – I don’t pretend to be special here – but the fact is, there was a time, long ago, when an ex of mine suggested that to make more room in my house, I could just… get rid of all the books. That should have told me everything I needed to know about her.
(That is a very important quote. I wish I knew who’d said it. Whoever it was, I love it.)
I have books on ballet, yoga, chess, woodworking. I have books on travelling through France in the 1980s, and antiques guide from the 70s. I have a book called ‘How To Build Your Own House’. No kidding. And I can’t let any of them go.
A time will come when I’ll have read them all. I suspect I’ll be very close to death by the time that happens, but the fact is, I need to read them all. There are so many things I don’t know. But I will.
So, there you have it. Day 24 – Books, and the ambition to read them all.
Petrina Binney - Author 