Paper Alchemy

Hold the new book in your hands that you’ve been eager to read for the first time. Open it, feel the snow whiteness of the new pages slide so smooth across your fingertips. Bring it up to your nose and smell it, turn it over and over. Read the back. Read the front. Read the plot description on the inside front cover, read the author’s bio. Look at their portrait. Smell the pages again.

You’ve been looking forward to this voyage ever since learning about the book. Maybe it’s by your favorite author and you’ve been waiting months for just this moment. Maybe you’ve never read this writer before but heard good things about the novel. Maybe it’s exactly the one you need for that research you’ve been doing. Maybe you knew nothing about the book or the author before you met them on a display table at the bookstore an hour ago. Sip your coffee, your tea, your hot chocolate while you hold the book in your other hand and smile at it. Whatever you do, put off reading the first pages a little while longer; savor the anticipation of that wonderful moment — like the one when you physically feel the plane lift off the ground and become airborne. Or the moment before you take the first bite of food when you’re very hungry. Kindles and e-readers are flat and handy, but real books are alchemy.