The joy of reading lists

It was a while ago that I was at university, but I still remember the thrill I used to get at the start of each academic year when the reading lists came out. That guilty pleasure of seeing my peers scanning through the list bemoaning the quantity and length of the books whilst I sat there planning my library trips and organising my reading time. By the end of the first week of term I had generally already digested the first couple of books and was making copious notes and writing draft essays on the more obvious topics. I can't remember a time when I haven't loved reading. It doesn't matter what the subject matter, whether it is fact or fiction, the genre is irrelevant, I just love the feel of a book in my hands, and the process of reading and learning.

I still create reading lists and have a spreadsheet of the books I am looking forward to reading, but this integration of technology and passion is causing me a slight problem. My aquaintances who are aware of my little hobby and have seen my spreadsheet have been very helpfully showing my their iPhone apps, iPad readers, Kindles and e-books and the reading lists that these useful pieces of technology can provide. They have demonstrated the "paper screen" technology that makes these electronic books as easy on the eye as paper books. They have shown me how easy they are to use in bright sunlight. They have taken me through the ease with which books can be loaded onto them and how many free books there are, and yet, for me, they are just gimmicks. I can use them well enough, I'm happy enough with technology, I'm certainly no Luddite, but in the end it comes down to one thing - they are not books.

I can't explain it any better than that, I guess I am more of a traditionalist than I realised but there is something about the look, feel, smell of a book that just works for me. It was in thinking about this that I realised that this mindset informs quite a lot of what interests me. I think it is the sensory experience that is the key for me, and certainly when I am browsing on the internet it is often the sites that feel more organic, as though they have been designed with care and attention to stimulating as many senses as possible that work best for me. It is almost a form of synesthesia whereby a visual cue on the screen can trigger a smell or taste sensation in my mind. It can be quite a strange experience, but it is not one that I have experienced with an electronic book yet. Maybe one day.....