7 Comments

The tiny horses are enjoyable and point to what is relatively recent history. Our family home on Northeast 24th Avenue, built in 1908 as the first house on the street, has one still. Our older daughter lives there now.

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I will be thinking of rapture (hoping it finds me) and those tiny horses hitched to those old rings all day today! thx, Fran.

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The opening salvo of your post today drove a dagger through my heart. I am so done with bibliophiles vilifying kindles in favor of "old books." Your rhapsody in library paste stopped me so hard today, I didn't want to read further.

"Scent of dry paper. Crumbling book jackets. Crumbs in the creases; someone snacked while reading. You just don’t get such sensuous experiences reading on a Kindle, but still there’s the rapture of the words, the thoughts, the images. And above all, there is rapture in knowing that you share these things with a vast band of other readers."

Believe me, Fran, there is nothing rhapsodic about breathing in the dust mite and mold-infested perfume of an old book, especially one with crumbling book covers that are being reduced to dust by the white fish that love to feast on these materials after having devoured all the charming little crumbs left by snacking readers. Any self-respecting librarian would shrink in horror at the sight of it.

It's a good thing librarians cover books these days because of all the sticky little fingers plastering sugary goo mixed with saliva all over the books. One of the more important and persistent jobs of a children's librarian is to disinfect the books after turn-in. And just think of the viruses and bacteria shared by this "vast band of other readers." If the health departments inspected libraries as ardently as they do restaurants, they would find books to be the biggest vector of disease since pocket change.

And don't get me started on the trees hewn for a bibliophile's drug party, AKA book club. Sniff away, ladies. I'll stick to my kindle upon which I can store hundreds of books, etc., adjust the light and type size to aid my fading eyesight, and hook up to a small solar charger when the grid collapses.

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I posted a reply last week and it has disappeared! I just wanted to point out that not all library books are sticky and icky. I read a fair number of them and have yet to pick up a virus. I did some checking; experts say there can be germs on books but the transmission rate is very low. There is some concern about bedbugs, though. I might start sticking the books in my portable UV sanitizer. Thanks for the heads up!

White fish is the smoked product you make whitefish salad from. I think you meant silverfish.

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Yes, I meant silverfish. The main reason you have never picked up a sticky icky library book is because the librarians cleaned them off before putting them back on the shelves. That's why librarians spend a great deal of time covering books with plastic covers, so they can clean them off without ruining the books.

And what do bedbugs have to do with this discussion?

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There have been instances of bedbugs hitching rides in library books. Now, that is scary.

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Yuck! I see your point.

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