ON THE PERMANENCE OF BOOKS

I just came back from a trip to my grandmother's, a place where every room not only has a stack of books, but they follow a theme of the room (i.e. princess stories in the girls' room, sports in the boys', old works of Tennyson and Jefferson in the living room). Many of her books range from old to ancient, in varying degrees of condition and it got me thinking about why I love books, not just literature but hold in your hands, need light to read, books. And more than that-- why I love buying them. I like having them on my shelves at home, I like loaning them out to people, I like being able to spill on them and turn the corners down to mark the page, and I even like getting rid of them either by passing them on to a loved one, or by giving them to a second-hand shop where someone else will find them, hold them, love them.

Also on this trip, we drove up hells canyon to the 10,000 year old pictographs etched on the rocks beside the Snake River. Examining these stories from an ancient time, even though I couldn't understand what they were about, I was endlessly amazed by their existence. Perhaps not created with the intent to communicate with people far into the future, they have achieved it none the less. I began to question what we would leave behind for future generations, species, cultures to surmise about our time on this Earth. It will not be our kindles, or iPads they peruse, it will be our buildings and our books. They will stumble upon great and beautiful libraries, monuments standing testament to the eternal quest for knowledge. They will find our homes, our bookshelves, they will guess who we were and what we loved by looking at the stories we kept, and how we arranged them. To me, this is the best possible prospect. It makes me proud to be a reader, and even more, to be a bookseller. I feel honored to help people build their character in life, and the legacy we will all leave behind. Thank you for letting us be a part of this journey, and thank you for being a part of ours.