The Presence and Presents of Books

A question of belonging and placement

Good morning, everyone. Alas it has arrived! The day of moving into my workspace. I am still in need of and in search of a handful of items - curtains for two of my windows, rugs to make things cozier, a few lamps and typical necessities - though today is the day we move in the mass bulk of items. Select musical instruments, art and writing supplies, much needed tools, gear, and equipment, and above all else, the item of greatest quantity: my books.

The question I’ve grappled with in the packing process and which has left me with the greatest variety of answers is wondering which books will live in my apartment and which books will live in my workspace.

Aside from a shared recording studio used solely for music production, I’ve never had my own designated workspace before, so my books have always lived together in harmony at home on my shelves. I’ve always been able to access them at any time, at all odd hours, and have had them organized and separated by category, knowing where they all live and how they live amongst each other. Now I am separating them, trying to designate them with these new titles, ‘home book’ or ‘work book.’ This has me quite confused, and I’m sure as the weeks and months go by, I will discover the nuance of these designations, and some will turn out to be traveling books, living much of their time in a bag as I tote them back and forth. We don’t know for sure though, and will have to see how things evolve.

While I was packing everything, I decided not to bring my poetry books to the workspace, and now as I sit here, I wonder if that was such a wise decision. It doesn’t make much sense, besides the fact that my intuition was that I wanted them close to me, with immediate access to their pages whenever I needed them. I guess it makes sense, as on the floor next to my bed you’ll most always find a pile of books, ever-changing in topic, though most always with an underlying foundation of Fernando Pessoa and Gregory Corso, as those books seem to be some sort of comforting blanket for me while I’m sleeping. I can’t imagine at the moment going home after a day of working and being separated from them, though now that I think more deeply about it, I can’t imagine being separated from any of my books, or any of my instruments, notebooks, or supplies.

Why are books so powerful in this way? It doesn’t matter if they are books we’ve read over and again, that shaped who we are or ignite in us who we want to be, or a book we haven’t read a single page of though we know somehow that it’s a favorite title, one that impacts us just by its presence in the room.

Here are some quotes about books:

"Books are mirrors: You only see in them what you already have inside you." – Carlos Ruiz Zafón

"One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time." – Carl Sagan

"Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again." – Louisa May Alcott

“All the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal… But with each passing year, and with each whimsical purchase, our libraries become more and more able to articulate who we are, whether we read the books or not.” – Nick Hornby

"A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors." – Charles Baudelaire

"When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young." – Maya Angelou

"I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them." – Emma Thompson

"Books are a uniquely portable magic." – Stephen King

"Some books leave us free and some books make us free." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We read to know we are not alone. – C.S. Lewis

"Read a lot. Expect something big, something exalting or deepening from a book. No book is worth reading that isn't worth re-reading." – Susan Sontag

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." – Frederick Douglass

“I have this weird obsession about buying books and looking at them with a smile, even if I won't read them soon. At least they are mine now.” - Anais Nin

"A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe." – Madeleine L'Engle

“And books! ...she would buy them all over and over again; she would buy up every copy, I believe, to prevent their falling into unworthy hands; and she would have every book that tells her how to admire an old twisted tree.” – Jane Austen

“Every author ought to write every book as if he were going to be beheaded the day he finished it.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

"The best books... are those that tell you what you know already." – George Orwell

"A book is a gift you can open again and again." – Garrison Keillor

“Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.” – Henry David Thoreau

 “How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.” – Henry David Thoreau

“A truly good book is something as natural, and as unexpectedly and unaccountably fair and perfect, as a wild flower discovered on the prairies of the West or in the jungles of the East.” – Henry David Thoreau

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!” – Jane Austen

“When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” – Jane Austen

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” – Haruki Murakami

We don’t need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don’ts: We need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever." – Philip Pullman

“Anyone who has a book collection and a garden wants for nothing.” – Cicero

A room without books is like a body without a soul. – Cicero

And a trailer for a movie about Umberto Eco and his personal library, comprised of over 50,000 books.

I think at the end of the day, books are just a pure and magical thing. From the first word penned, to the finished manuscript, to the editing and polishing process, to choosing the font and designing the cover, to the binding and production of each of its materials, to distribution and the excitement of first arrival in stores, to the joy of the writer, to the joy of the reader, to the joy of the collector in decades and centuries to come. If we are lucky enough to be in contact with a book through a library or shop, to be the caretaker of 1 book or 100 books, then we are truly blessed in this world. Books are a blessing, and that is the absolute truth.

How do you feel about your books? About books in general? Did you particularly relate to any or all of the quotes above? Are you thinking of a specific book or book related memory that you would like to share? As always, please put any and all thoughts in the comments. I would really love to read them. :)

Sending a special thank you to my friends who are booksellers, bookbinders, who help to preserve the magic and greatness of the book, to everyone who is reading this and thinking of/looking at their own precious collections as caretakers, and to the writers, characters, the words of the pages themselves. To the book. There is no such particular magic as finding a new one, of leaving the shop and knowing the great unknown future that lies ahead before you.

Thank you for reading. :)) Have a great day today!