I love stopping off and browsing through the titles stacked on an old wooden table along the windowed front of a wee shop that’s not far from home. When I think about it I realise I’ve never thought to check out its name, it’s always been the quirky Bookshop in the Arcade – a magic maze of second-hand books and nicknacks and DVDs and vinyls and old videos for those who still have working machines.
Inside everything is crammed into shelves and bundled into waist high stacks that encroach walking space and access to the shop counter. With all the possibility of setting off an avalanche you are still most welcome to trawl through the books (if you’ve got the time and or the patience). The danger in this is walking away with several more books than planned, and possibly not the one you’d gone looking for. What I find extraordinary is that the owner (when asked) will tell you whether she has the book you are looking for or another by the author. There’s no apparent system to her stacks, but she seems to know where a book can be found. I suspect she has a has a schema in place even if it appears completely chaotic to me.
I managed to stop myself at four books, which included one I’ve had on my ‘to read list’ for a while. Three dollars a book, a bargain, right - how could I resist? And so much cheaper than the eBook versions I had been mulling over. Not too tough a decision given I am at odds with my eBook reader, and more so with its service provider (but that’s story for another time). Am I alone in this? Not according to the limited -and I do mean miniscule - google searching I just did 1.
I often imagine myself slipping into the novel’s world, drawing pictures in my head of characters and places, and I just don’t get the same effect with a device and it’s not quite turning the page feel. Are there others like me who love the tactile experience of a book? The feel of paper, the weight of a book, the changing look of a page as it ages, the smell that reminds me of libraries, and comfort in which you can sneak ahead or turn back. I don’t mind that a book is dog eared and wearied, or there’s notes scribbled in corners or paragraphs underlined. I not that precious, unlike the teacher in my early years of reading who berated me for folding the tiniest corner of a novel I was deeply invested in. Another story for another day, not too scarring but rather has led to a collection of bookmarks that I keep misplacing.
Again, I find myself traipsing around and going off on tangents. Sorry but I’m definitely one who is in for the journey as much as the destination. This time it was wading through a bunch of weirdly stacked books before asking for the one I was hoping to find – which is Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Upmost Happiness.
Oh, and an afterthought – I do like when I find a personalised inscription in a book. Most tend to read as a gift that ends with love.
The Case for Paper: Books vs. E-Readers: Why a good old-fashioned book is better for your mental health. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/well-read/202402/the-case-for-paper-books-vs-e-readers Accessed 10 July 2026
Looking forward to your thoughts on Arundhati's novel! I read her first one many years ago and this latest one is on my wish list. I'm very much in love with her again after reading her memoir!
I, like you, love the tactile experience, the texture of the paper on my fingers, the weight of the book, the scent of the paper... I love the feel of a crisp, new book a little better than a worn one, but, if it is my repeated readings that have made it worn, that journey is a part of the comfort and familiarity of the pages.
I won't, however, mark a book or dog end a page (goodness knows what I will find for a book mark - anything from a receipt to an actual bookmark - but nothing that will mark the book permanently), although I love an inscription, too - always wondering who the people are, what they are like, and whether they are still with us. An inscription is the one mark I will make in a book, finished off with love. Oh, I tell a lie, I will also sign my own books when asked.
I do occasionally read on my phone but only in the dire emergency that I find myself in a situation with an out-of-book error, although, oddly, if I have started a series via an electronic device, I will continue that series via that medium.