Books as Fingerprints
Jan 18, 2012 
It used to be that hardcopy book people would get this insane fire in their eyes when someone would ask them about e-readers or e-books or the future of publishing. It’s that “I like the weight of them” look, the “it’s the way they smell” look, the “you can pry my hard copy books out of my cold dead hands” look. In just a few short years it seems that’s kind of calmed down a little bit. I know I have. I used to be adamant that I’d never own an e-reader, but now—especially that I do so much reading of books in digital manuscript form—I can see the appeal. And I’ll probably even get one, too.
But I’ll also never stop buying physical books.
I like to physically own the books that have changed or influenced me in some way. I like to be able to see them, touch them, smell them. I like to run my finger along the spines of the books in my book case, feeling the different textures. I love them like little parts of my own self. I get distressed when other people talk about getting rid of books or downsizing their collections because I simply cannot imagine cutting out little parts of myself to throw away.
When I look at my bookshelves I see a vast and varied fingerprint—these books are what made me who I am today. No one else has this exact collection. It’s unique. And each of these books means something important. I hid in their pages as a shy kid. I imagined myself writing their words as an ambitious teenager. I learn from every chapter and sentence now, as an author. Books I’ll never read again because my tastes have changed, but that I loved when I was little. Books by friends who are going through the same journey I am now. Books missing covers and with the bindings falling apart because they spent so much time rattling around in my backpack. Books that are water and smoke-damaged, like THE GIVER, one the few books to survive my house fire as a kid.
When I walk into someone else’s home, my eyes are immediately drawn to their bookshelves. You can learn so much about a person by what they read—or what they choose to display about what they read. When I look at my own shelves it’s like looking in a mirror of the mind. I can see all these tiny pieces that are a part of me now. I can see myself made up not of atoms and molecules and DNA and neurons and electrical impulses, but of words. Words that have come from me, and words that have come from a thousand people all around the world all sitting down to write.
And I just can’t get that from looking at a screen, no matter how convenient it is.
A section of my own bookshelf, my own fingerprint. Someday I'll have a study/library with enough shelves that I can put up ALL my books, not just a selection.
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books, bookshelves, e-books, e-readers, identity, kidlit, physical books, reading, words, writing, YA
Every inch, every word of this post I agree with. I love the convenience of an e-reader (although I don’t have one–yet), but when I love a book, I want it living in my house because it’s part of me.
So lovely to have a kindred spirit on this! I think it’s extra important to me because I’m a writer… I think I hope that someday, a book of mine will be important enough to someone that it becomes a part of them, too. If that happens even just once, I’ll have done my job.
I love that analogy!
Thanks! 😀
Totally, totally agree. I use my Kindle more for reading friends’ mss, though in the past few weeks, I’ve actually really, really warmed up to it for buying books (I was reading a series of UF novels and it was SO AWESOME to be able to just CLICK and have the next book instantly there for me to read). That being said, I think I’ll always prefer hardcopy books just a tad more for EXACTLY the reasons you listed. Beautiful, beautiful post, Meg!!!
Yeah, reading manuscripts is about 90% of why I want to get a Kindle at some point this year. So convenient!
And thank you! <3
My kindle is perfect for reading MSS, and for books that I think I might just rip through once. Anything I plan on re-reading or lending, I need in hard copy.
There’s more to it than that, though. I was recently reorganising my bookshelves, and I realised that I was definitely keeping various books — whether from my childhood, or books I probably won’t read again — because I feel that they identify me. It’s this combination of books, this particular reading history and journey, that made me who I am. In some cases I even kept more than one edition of a book, because the act of owning each one is a part of my identity. Great post!
Oh, YES to the owning of different editions! I often own two copies of books–one for me, and one for lending. In the case of THE LAST UNICORN, I actually own four distinct and different editions.
I covet your bookshelves so bad. Someday I am seriously going to hire your husband to come build me bookshelves into my own walls. When I have my own walls.
This really resonates with why I like paper copies of books– it’s not exactly the same but it’s similar. I only like to buy books once I’m sure that I love them. So I don’t have too many, but any book I buy is one that has a special meaning to me and is one that I am bound (hur hur) to read a million times over. I usually have a Kindle copy as well as a paper copy, so that I can carry the stories around with me, but a paper copy is a special kind of honorific I place on a book that means a lot to me in some way. Perhaps my fingerprint is a bit of a different type than yours, but it’s still a fingerprint, I suppose. Good post!
I totally think it’s the same principle at work, though. I do the same thing if I read a book that I borrowed from someone else, or if I read it in manuscript form before.
I think it also makes a difference when you move around–carrying a ton of books makes moving SUCH a pain. So it makes each book you do own that much more important.
I love this post! And I completely agree I adore looking at my bookcases and seeing old friends and new discoveries there. I love having a nosey at other peoples bookcases too!
I got a Kindle last year as a present and it is fantastic. I love being able to buy a book straight away and I love how light it is to take out with me. But I have bought at least five books in hard cover after reading them on the Kindle because I wanted them on my bookshelf 🙂
I soooo love looking at people’s bookshelves. I’m like that with DVDs too, actually… I love seeing what people actually end up buying.
Yeah… the convenience of the Kindle is pretty tempting!
I LOVE THIS! I never thought about books as fingerprints. Right now I have a box of books I was planning to donate, but I might have a different look at them now. For sure there are books I will never read again, but each of them carries something memorable. I’m betting if I picked up each one I could tell you what my favorite part about it was, even if I will never read it again. Egads, now I’m wondering what someone would think of me if they evaluated my collection. LOL
What a delightful and thought-provoking post! Thank you.
I’m so glad you liked it!
Donating books is great–I do it, too! But the ones I keep are all important to me in some way. They’re the ones that even if I’m not planning on rereading them, they’ve still touched me in some way as I’ve grown up. 🙂
I couldn’t agree more. I was just talking about my undying love for physical books over ebooks. I love anything tech and people who know me might assume I’d go for ebooks, but I never will. When I hear people talking about the possibility of ebooks replacing books completely one day, it’s very unsettling, but have a feeling that it might be the reality one day. Maybe not with my generation, but the next.
Unsettling–I agree! As a realist, I have to say that there’s probably some day in the future when physical books will cease to exist as we know them now. But I don’t think that’s going to be for a long time, yet. And I hope that even when they’re not in bookstores and so forth, I hope you can still GET physical books as keepsakes/physical reminders of the books you love!
I will NEVER stop reading physical books. I got a Kindle last summer and while it’s easy and inexpensive to download all those 99 cent books, it aggravates me to read them on the screen. Without any design or page numbers. Plus holding the device begins to hurt my hand after 30 minutes. Give me something I can open and caress and gaze at! 🙂
And gosh, I *loved* seeing my books right smack in the center of your bookcase! Wow! Next best thing to being there. You are awesome, Meg, and I’m honored.
I’ve read a books on my mother’s Kindle, and I have to admit my experience reading them just wasn’t the same as with a physical book. Maybe it’s something you get used to? But while I wouldn’t mind one for reading manuscripts, when it comes to total immersion… I still want a BOOK.
It’s totally an accident of alphabetization that your books are SMACK dab in the middle of my bookshelves! I love them there, though. 😀
[…] This smart and thoughtful post from my partner in crime, Meagan Spooner, on books as fingerprints–why your collection of physical books matters. […]
This is exactly the way I feel. When I stand in front of my bookcases, I see a history of my life through books. I’m sure I’ll get an e-reader someday, but for the books I truly love, I’ll buy a hard copy too!
I love that this post has found me so many kindred spirits! Sometimes I feel like one of the only people on the planet who sees books this way, as identity, not just entertainment. <3
I love this post. I looked up at my bookshelf straight after reading your thoughts. I realized the books on my shelf which resonated with me the most also have tangible memories of reading them at a specific time and place whilst also being swallowed whole by the book itself in those memories.
That said – I recently bought an e-reader to buy books that are difficult to get in Australia and e-released novellas because the computer screen hurts my eyes. Although, I’m already making mental notes to buy the print versions of the really good books I’ve read once I have enough saved 🙂
I love this comment!
I will say that it was living in Australia that convinced me that I would eventually get an e-reader for certain things. I had to leave me whole collection of books behind in the U.S., and while my housemate had an AWESOME collection, there were still some books I wished I could get at!
Perfect post. I think books are a unique thing, not at all like the video player comparision, because when we look at them we get a sudden flash of rememberance from them, e.g: A favourite scene, a least favourite scene, some rememberance of the point of time that we read them. It’s like hanging up a trophy (although I’d rather hang something fitness relatedXD).
Also, I think readers are a sneaky way of getting rid of the second hand book business. I love walking into a second hand bookstore:O
I love used bookstores too! To me it’s the smell and the feel of the air when I step inside. It’s like the outside world falls away.
I’m going to break with the flow here and say I love my e-Reader so much it has replaced physical books. But it’s not because I don’t love books – it’s because now I can take my entire library with me wherever I go. Recently, I found a secluded corner of the gardens in the Alhambra, near a water fountain, and was able to pull out Gabriel Guy Kay’s Lions of Al Rassan, which it reminded me of, and begin to reread it.
I never thought eBooks would replace books for me, I always thought the romance of the smell and feel and page turn could never be replaced. But given that when I’m reading, I can have the house fill with smoke from burning cookies, or miss my train stop, and not notice… it doesn’t matter how it’s delivered, it’s the world and not the medium that is important to me.
As to the fingerprint, the flip side to that is that it means you can read the books you’re not proud of – the guilty pleasures – without judgement. On the plane, I was reading the Mysterious Benedict Society, and no one blinked at me reading a book obviously aimed at a younger audience.
I’m not saying you’re wrong – I’m just sharing the reasons why I went over to the dark side.