Friday, March 1, 2019

FranktoidTM No. 20 - If Books Could Talk

What if books could talk? I'm not talking audio books here, but pulp and ink, hold in your hands physical books. With the ever increasing popularity of the internet one might think that print is dead, but I am here to tell you that it is nowhere near being put in a pine box. I have to admit I am a bit of a bibliophile when it come to automotive books. My love for ink on paper lies between vintage vehicle repair manuals and collector car reference books, but just about anything automotive gets my attention. I was lucky enough to score a first edition Motor's Manual recently in almost perfect condition.


Because books are so physical I think they have more meaning then something you would read electronically. Case in point, addressing a book to someone or writing a personal greeting in it. I usually check the inner flap of books that I am interested in and occasionally there will be something written in there. What a person has written can really make you stop and think. Was this someone's favorite book or a gift? Did the owner pass away and it was donated? Were they even aware that something was written in it? These personalized words are pieces of a puzzle that will never be completed but they were all somebody's property at one time and obviously meant something to them. If that book could talk, what would it say?
Words are simplistically powerful.