Wanting to Hold a Book in my Hands

While I was reading the e-book version of Charlotte Wharton's The Language of Energy in Art: Finding Your Vision, I realized how much I wanted to have her book in my hands. I longed to thumb back through the pages, revisit the photograph of a painting, study the diagram of the Munsell Color System, and more. Reading an e-book has its limits.

While I enjoy the convenience of Kindle on my iPad, there's a feel of a lost dimension sometimes, especially for non-fiction books. Today, I look around in my writing office at the four tall, five-shelf bookcases lined along nearby walls. Some of the shelves have rows of books two-deep, front and back.

Many of the books are art or art-related. I have one, Celebrate Your Creative Self  by Mary Todd Beam, that I pulled out last night. Since I will be taking a week-long workshop from her in the near-future, I was excited to discover this book among the ones on my shelves. When I took a class last year from Pat Dews, I found two of her books stashed in the midst of the art volumes I own. Sadly, I often purchase books with titles that intrigue me at the time, then fail to actually read them until I take a class that relates.

I have several books about Georgia O'Keeffe's art hidden in various bookcases around our house, and I use them frequently when I teach art workshops. I will be teaching one of those workshops, "Painting Like Georgia", March 28 at Gloucester Arts on the Main and soon will be looking for my O'Keeffe books to share with the class.

How many books do I own? I have no idea. They are scattered in bookcases on three floors. Many, including at least 100 or more additional art books are in book cases in the den. Others are in bedroom bookcases on the main floor. I have ghost, travel, angel, writing how-to, marketing, photography, baseball, and much more residing on my shelves. The books are a story of a lifetime of varying interests.

I wish these books were cataloged and placed together in the proper locations. But they aren't. Many of them, like the how-to books would be better served as Kindle or pdf. books disappearing into my iPad. That would free up some of the office shelf space.

The O'Keeffe books could never be the same on an iPad. I love to thumb through the pages and enjoy revisiting some of my favorite paintings. I can show them to students on the iPad, but there's something special about actually viewing them on slick paper with bright ink.

My bookcases are cumbersome, but I need to have books that are handy to the touch. I want to hold it in my hands!

What about you? Do you still need books that you can touch?