The Book: An Homage

The Book — An Homage is a pleasant read.

It's a collection of very short essays, each three pages or less, about different aspects of books — new, old, damaged, incomplete, annotated, gifted, signed, etc.

It's not terribly insightful and actually documents the reflections of just a single book lover and collector. If you take the time to read it in the voice of its older German author sitting back in his chair reminiscing slowly about his experiences with books, it takes on a slight charm too.

He had a couple of comments that I appreciated. The first in regard to burned books and a short discussion of Fahrenheit 451:

Wherever books are burnt,
When all is said and done,
Men burn as well.

I believe that the read book maintains its value because it's a visible, tangible document of one's life as a reader.