Book Attachment

Book Attachment

by 

Rachel Cooke

(age 13)

The rich, perceptive feel of a beautiful novel is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Through the time portal of the flip of a page, you can go anywhere, see anything, touch anything, smell anything, hear anything, if you let yourself become entirely immersed in the words of an author.

  My nose brushes the thick pages as I skim through them quickly and closely breathing in the deep, knowledgeable dust and age. (I can almost sense a good story through my well trained nose. All I have to do is close my eyes and take a big whiff of the ancient dust and my imagination goes wild.) I pick up one of the beautiful, old, brown and red books that are etched in ribbons of silver and gold and grip the hard binding securely as my fingers skim the crispy pages.

 I hear footsteps behind me and my fingers slip on the heavy cover. It falls to meet the paper below it, landing with a whump. Sometimes if the cover is shut too quickly or you brush the pages to fast, salty, dry, choking, dust, will land on the tip of your tongue and infiltrate your nose tasting horrendous and making it hard to breathe.

 

   I lightly stroke the rough, coarse cover on the aged book. It feels weathered but in a soothing way. I set the antique book back on its shelf with the others. With my books is my favorite place to be. It’s so relaxing but also so enticing as if every book is calling my name. I feel at home here surrounded by stories and adventures and characters.  As I turn around for one more glance at the alluring bindings, I can’t help but feel attached to each one and the story that it holds.

(assignment for Lesson One - Observation (CLICK HERE)


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