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Of course, I make all these observations, acknowledging that I, too, am part of these particularly curious communities of people who fetishize books- not ideas, not language itself, but the actual physical books. My apartment is covered in them. Every place I’ve lived always seems to be in need of an additional bookshelf. Growing up, the members of my family were always book collectors. It was normal for stacks of books to be littered throughout the house, loading up on the coffee and kitchen tables. We were never wealthy people, or people who coveted a lot of material things, but books seemed to define us as people in some strange way. My family history was taught to me through books–Cuban cookbooks littered about the kitchen table, books of Jewish thought and history lay out on the coffee table. We never went to services regularly, and felt somewhat isolated in many of the rural places we lived where we were the only Jewish Cubans around. Nonetheless, these books were constant reminders of our experience and identity as people. Some may say that books are heady, airy, philosophical creations, but to me they were always parts of the natural landscape, as earthy and natural as a home cooked meal or digging in the garden. They were tangible reminders that our memories could preserve us, even long after the familial diasporas were over.

There were lots of people like me who populate the local bookstores and keep them alive. Of course, I think this is valuable, but since becoming a writer and coming to define myself more and more by my craft I feel that my relationship with books has actually changed. One of my ex-boyfriends was an excellent guitarist and he said his appreciation for music shifted in a way, as he began to write his own songs, rather than just admire those of others.He said when he was younger he used to just respond emotionally to every piece of music he heard and that he could no longer do that, after he started to play guitar. Not that the music did not move him, but he automatically began to think about things beyond the spiritual experience of listening to a good song–the technique it took to play. Today, I realize I feel the same way about books. I don’t fall in love as easily and I don’t read in the same immersive way I used to. I distance myself more from my material. I realize that art, even at its most honest, is a somewhat manipulative act, urging readers to feel a certain way about a given topic. When I say this, I don’t mean to criticize all writing, or the act of writing itself.As I grow older I simply realize I am more skeptical, more choosy about which books I love, and which I don’t.

When I first started working at my large chain bookstore, I thought I would be surrounded by people who felt the same way about books that I did. But, in reality, the kind of elitist attitude I held for books was just that–a kind of elitist attitude. I learned to stop giving recommendations for books of poetry, because people didn’t want to read poetry. I would point them instead to the tables that had discount books. I would marvel as they would stack up piles of cheap paperbacks, romance novels and copies of Time magazine and gloat about how proud they were that they were such avid readers when they came to the register.Big chain bookstores in America are dying out, and people are rushing to the kindle and other reader devices, not because people don’t read in America, but because most people don’t fetishize the book and bookstore experience the way that certain readers do.They read for content which is fun and easy and interesting to them and care less about the attitude about books themselves and what they mean and how they fit into a kind of cultural identity.

I don’t believe that the transition from physical book to newer technologies will ultimately change the way that people read. The romantic notion that the bookstore is a kind of home for writers and readers dissipated when I worked long hours at a register where all the employees were expected to push product- stuffed animals, chocolates, book lights. I made the choice to work at a book store because I felt it represented something about my identity. This is how we make consumer choices in America too, yearning for items which represent the kind of people we are or aim to be. These are aesthetic choices that are no more lofty or humble than a person deciding to invest in a technological device that can be easily carried and customized and doesn’t even kill any trees in the process. In truth, I think that holding onto books is somewhat silly. Ebook Readers allow for more private reading in a way- no flashy covers and showing off you are reading a weighty classic or the latest paperback bestseller.

Nonetheless, the fact that books as a medium are dying out makes me more than a little sad. This is true even though I honestly read more online today than in print, and I appreciate the great things that technology brings in terms of writing creatively. Places like The Nervous Breakdown provide a kind of artistic and writing community that is in many ways greater than the sense of connection found in the old fashioned coffee houses and bookstores of the past. I feel slightly ashamed of my love for books, themselves because I know they clutter my home and that I always pack too many when I travel and then don’t end up reading more than one anyway.But this lingering sense of sadness persists because I still feel there is something very valuable about the weight of books themselves. And I realize that some of my trepidation about falling in love too quickly with an idea or feeling I read, reflects the power that books have over me. I read novels half way through and stop when the feelings become too strong, when the emotion is overpowering, when I worry I wont be able to stop, when my soul and skin tenses up and I lose myself to the sensations of words themselves, the patterns of language that wake us up in the middle of the night longing and the tender knowledge that just like we are merely blood and bone, a book is merely ink and pulp, and the fear that the weight of both is easily forgotten.

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ARIELLE BERNSTEIN is a writer living in Washington, DC. She teaches writing at American University and also freelances. Her work has been published in The Millions, The Rumpus, St. Petersburg Review, South Loop Review, The Ilanot Review and Press Play (Indie Wire). She has been listed three times as a finalist in Glimmer Train short story contests . She is currently writing her first book. She is Associate Book Reviews Editor at The Nervous Breakdown.

7 responses to “The Matter of Memories: The Book as an Object of Desire”

  1. Clarissa Olivarez says:

    This is an excellent article – very perceptive. I also fetishize books and, as a consequence, am anti-Kindle. I don’t care how yellowed the pages are or how tattered the cover is, I just love to feel the book in my hands and display it on my shelf. I do agree, there is some smug sense of superiority there – “Look how smart I am, with all my books on metafiction.”
    I do have to disagree with the part about the second-hand bookstores, but I also believe I’m somewhat out of the “norm” here as I have a Master’s in Literature and am already kind of a book snob. I used to frequent these bookstores all the time and I would only buy classic and modern fiction/drama/poetry. I am both a part of that “smug elite,” but am also very poor. So I would walk out with hardback copies of Ulysses, Kafka, The Canterbury Tales, D.H. Lawrence, and Moby Dick; I don’t believe I ever walked out with anything “below” this caliber of reading, such as a hardware manual, or even, dare I say, a Nicholas Sparks book (ick). While I know these people definitely exist (I know some of them), I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as you suggest. Sometimes, and I’m not sure if this happens anymore with the economy – but it once did, some people only visit used bookstores to trade in their books or get cash for them. They don’t even walk out with anything.
    Ok, well now I’m just rambling…great article, ,as usual. 🙂

  2. Simon Smithson says:

    Excellent, excellent piece, Arielle. And one that should be brought up for discussion for so many reasons – our current discussions on publishing (Mr. Fishman! Paging Mr. Fishman!), on TNB and what and why it is, and on the varied connections between readers and writers.

    I’m bang alongside the idea of e-publishing, but I also love the book as object, as well. I hope there will be room for all kinds of publications in the years ahead – including, though expensive, books as objects of art; the kind of hand-made icons that physically cannot be mass-produced, simply because they would be too labor/craft-intensive.

    Ah….

    A man can dream.

  3. Loved it–bibliophiles are a special breed, to be sure, and they’ve existed for hundreds of years. Have you read “A Gentle Madness” by Nicholas A. Basbanes? It’s a very interesting and beautiful book about eccentric book lovers.

    I tutor all the time in chain bookstores (it’s a new thing, apparently), and I was just noticing how there are “regulars” there–and it’s really weird. Every day at the same time I see the same people…but I am there, too, so I shouldn’t talk.

    Best,

    Elizabeth

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