He would sometimes sleep with his books, several outlining his body, others resting beneath his pillows. He loved holding them, tracing his fingers along their covers. And while this should have been enough to inspire him to learn to read, he was content to collect them for their beauty alone.
Ran Walker is the author of twenty-three books, including The Strange Museum: 50-Word Stories. He teaches creative writing at Hampton University.
Book dealers are sooo sooo into their books for the content of the volumes and the beautiful illustrations and bindings….
Love your story…and a book I have of yours, Ran.
Oh I like this. But poor guy, missing out on the content of his beautiful books.
Beautiful story. If I had my way, I’d live in a library! This captured my feelings on books very nicely. Good work!
I love this so much. Sad and also beautiful.
This touched my heart. It reminded me of one of the questions on jeopardy’s very last episode with Alex Trebek…something like .. “who is someone who collects books but never reads them ?”
Whoever it was, answered correctly.., “what is Tsundoku?” With that…I will continue to sleep with my books. ❤️