That Smell of Books

2020 Reading Challenge: 28 books out of 60 (47%)

---

Nothing beats that smell of a new book or the smell of a book that has been loved and read. The pages of a book tells so much about the hands that it's passed through. For me, the way a book is treated says a lot about the owner, or the people who have read the book. Growing up, I treasured the books I owned. I was always reluctant to lend my books to people because I was scared of the condition I'd get them back in. I've written before, in previous posts, about the difficulties of getting new books in Uganda. I guess that if someone damaged a book whilst I was leaning it to them, the chances of getting another copy was extremely slim. Not only because of the slim chances that the bookshop would stock that particular book, but also delivery services (like Amazon) aren't guaranteed to turn up in our post box. Packages have been known to "disappear" whilst en route from Europe to Uganda. It's not a lot of fun having a package never arrive, or arrive having been opened or emptied. I think that now I've in England, it's easier to deal with lending my books out. Though, so far, I've never been asked by someone, if I could lend them a book or two. I think that a lot of people have library cards and thus go to the library to read. People also tend to buy books from Waterstone's (a chain of British Bookshops) or their local charity shops. There also seems to be a trend in buying and using e-readers. A lot of people also use their phones. The nice thing with the Kindle is that if I buy a book for my Kindle, and download into onto my device then I can't lend the book out without having to lend my Kindle to the person (which isn't something I'd do, due to how much a Kindle will cost to replace).

Over the last few weeks, I've spent a lot of time reading and drinking tea. In April alone, I read 18 books from cover to cover. This is something that I haven't done in a very long time. I've written before about having several book reading days, where I barely moved and spent the day just reading one book after another. It refreshed my soul and has helped me start to find my sanity. I have felt like I've started to go crazy being cooped up in the flat (due to the lockdown) and reading has allowed me the chance to get out of the flat into various worlds that I found in the books. It's been lovely and I really enjoyed it. I know that over the next few weeks, my opportunities to spend an entire day with my Kindle will go down drastically, nut more that in my next posts!

Until next time!