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The Lonely Book

I took a book out of the library where it must have stood amidst its brethren for 25 years, unused, unborrowed-- I know this because its pages were crisp, never bent by a greedy reader, and not yellow from time's effect, a drug that ages books as it does readers.... Someday I guess all books, both the virgins and the overly used, even abused, will be no more: all replaced by sterile zeros & ones, and my future self will never again have the soft pleasure of turning endless pages, feeling tangible the words of some distant mind.

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Darlene De Beaulieu

Date: 10/22/2017 8:50:00 PM

Oh.. L. J. Carber, not to be able to touch a book ,is unheard of. I enjoy to touch the pages of the book. turning pages after pages,I enjoy to do. Taking my time to enjoy what I read. Have a nice evening my friend.

Darlene De Beaulieu
Date: 10/25/2017 3:23:00 PM

Yes i am a book lover and always will be. Have a nice day my friend.

L. J. Carber
Date: 10/23/2017 9:35:00 AM

Thank you Darlene-- I'm surprised at the response the poem is eliciting; there must still be a few book lovers left after all!

Robert Lindley

Date: 10/16/2017 7:23:00 PM

I LOVE THIS INSIGHTFUL POEM. I am a book collector, hardback first editions. I live the contents, look , feel and smell of the books written in the 1800's. Some books, I feel connected to the first moment I touch them.... A fav my friend.

L. J. Carber
Date: 10/17/2017 9:48:00 AM

Thank you, Robert. It's strange the comfort a book lover gets just from having books around. Perhaps because they are symbolic of our unique human ability to transcend.

Maureen Mcgreavy

Date: 10/14/2017 11:03:00 PM

Wonderful :) fave xomo

L. J. Carber
Date: 10/15/2017 11:25:00 AM

Thank you Maureen!

Sunlite Wanter

Date: 10/14/2017 6:11:00 PM

So glad you expressed this. I am torn because I feel as you do about the feel of a book, but someone gave me a Kindle for Christmas 3-4 years ago and I have loved that, too.

L. J. Carber
Date: 10/15/2017 11:28:00 AM

Thanks, Sunlite-- I too am ambivalent about cybernetic progress--I can see its 'perils', but I sure wish I had had word-processing in college: would have made things much easier. Well, everything in life is a trade-off.