© Meandros Press. This essay is original to Meandros Press and may not be reproduced without permission.
A book is more than its pages
– Musings from Meandros
Our world moves fast. In the blink of an eye, there’s a new concept, a new advancement or a new piece of technology that moves us forward into our world. And while we’re all for advancing when it comes to things that enhance the human experience, not everything that is convenient, or even faster, is necessarily better.
Here at Meandros Press, one of the things we strongly believe that adds joy and meaning to our world is story. Not only story, but books. Not only books, but the pleasure of paper. The pleasure of holding an author’s creation in your hands and feeling their soul through the pages as you wander and meander through their mind.
A feeling that is similar to listening to an album from start to finish, rather than streaming a single song on repeat. Yes, technology means you can access that one song you love and bypass the rest. But it also means that you are missing out on the pleasure of discovery. When you sit with the musician, listening to their album, while flipping though the album credits and artwork they’ve personally approved, you get to appreciate the art, and the artist on a different, level.
This is how we feel about books. It’s the pleasure of paper. The smell of musty libraries. The beauty and craftsmanship behind bookbinding. It’s the pleasure of weight, of holding a book in your hands and truly immersing yourself in the story, as if you are absorbed in the pages themselves.
A home that’s filled with books lets you showcase your entire personality. Forget the “Old Money” aesthetic. We don’t mean going out and buying books just because they are pretty and add to your colour palette. We’re talking about all books, big and small. They are little entryways into parts of our mind. Little nooks and crannies that remind us why literature is such a powerful human experience. Books are the tangible reminders of these beautiful human experiences and the ones that are often unique to us.
If you follow design trends, they will convince you that books are clutter. Unless they are aesthetically pleasing books, then they are “beautiful objects.” Just remember, those same design trends have pushed society into a corporate-looking way of living. A very boxed way of living. Living in a house that has been remodelled to look like a box, driving a car that looks like a box. Sitting on a couch that looks like a box. Having clutter-free spaces, with tonnes of plastic organisation, that is the very definition of clutter, but we’re not here to keep score.
Remember when homes were filled with Persian rugs, ornate ceiling moulds, chandeliers and collected trinkets from your travels? Remember when designers unveiled cars with sleek lines that made you feel something other than road rage? Now that’s a whole other topic, but you get the point.
But books… Books are treasures. They are meant to have a life beyond the simple one-time pleasure of reading the pages and then discarding them. They want to stay present in your mind, and continue to feed and to nurture your human experience. They don’t want to be hidden away and forgotten, dumped at the charity store, or worse yet, binned to the recycle pile.
We feel the same about the written word. About beautiful typography, penmanship and cursive flourishes. The fact that someone sat down to write. The pleasure of weight. Of holding a heavy pen in one’s hand and gliding it along gorgeous, luxurious paper that you found on your travels.
Remember when a single letter, addressed to you, could create a wave of instant joy? When was the last time you felt that way about an email?
As we mentioned, we’re all about the advancement to our human race, and we embrace technology. It’s just that we do it without disregarding the things that actually matter….
A beautifully composed record, a framed painting, a threadbare Persian rug, a classic motor vehicle just after it’s been painstakingly polished, a letter from an admirer, but most importantly, a beautiful bound book.
Rekindle the joy from the tactile experience of reading. Resist the disposable. Embrace the permanence of craftsmanship