I admit it: I regularly read the last page. It doesn't matter the typeface or genera, I must know what happens at the end before I finish reading through an entire book. Once I know what happens, I then go back and read the middle. And when words are made up or difficult to pronounce, I skip them altogether.
That's just one of many reasons I love books.
Old-fashioned ones. Soft- and hard-covered. The kind you can pick up and take with you. Display on your bookshelf books. Ones that don't require Internet or wifi to access. Books you can crack open, crease and flip through. Books with pages that can be dog-eared, ripped and turned over. Books that have binding, a certain smell, a unique personality and sometimes even a unique jacket cover that's tied to its publishing date.
Old-fashioned books have owners. They've been given as gifts and thus bear a "to whom," "from whom," quotes and dates. There's even scribbles, doodles and notes on certain pages of them. They have histories and stories themselves: where they were bought, how they were found and why they were chosen.
Books can transport you to new places, but you can also take old-fashioned books to destinations: long walks, the bathtub, even the beach. You can get them wet. Dirty. You can even spill ice cream on them. And while the pages may water spot or stick together from the liquid or food, there's no risk of a power shortage or an electrical shock.
Books don't just sit pretty on the bookshelf or spark conversations, they have functional and design uses too. They can be used to press, prop or straighten things.
While I have a love for old-fashioned books, I don't have a need to collect them. Yes, I have many of the original 56 Nancy Drew hardcover books, but I prefer to borrow books from the library and my friends.
I even borrow the occasional eBook and book on CD and listen as someone reads me the story while driving from here to there.
But with digital books, it's hard to flip to the end to find out what happens. It's more of a point and scroll. And forget about fast-forwarding the CD to the "last page." Also, I don't seem to retain the information or get nearly the same satisfaction as I do when I settle in with a good, old-fashioned book.
