We can all agree that every book is a source. There is nothing more precious one can give to the child as love of books and reading. I was lucky with that. But now I’ve also got the Source. She is awesome, she is in San Diego and she recently single-handedly restored my faith in humanity.
When I asked my friends and family for the titles of their favourite books as my birthday present, upon which I’ve compiled this INSANELY informative, quality and priceless booklist, she responded that she’d give me something even better. And she did – namely access to her online library. More than a thousand books. And as the list grew she did something even cuter, she told me she would search for the books from my list just because she had time. I replied that if this was meant by stalking, I’m all for it.
And so the next time I looked into her library, it had all three Jeds, for example, a Judy, a couple of Joans and whole lot of Jeanettes – only her Lighthousekeeping, which comes recommended by dear friend GG, was missing – and that’s just some of the J’s. There are authors of which I’ve never heard before writing looooong series of which I’ve never heard before. There are quirky and peculiar people’s favourites that have shaped them into what they have become, but what completely floored me was seeing that the Source had even provided all seven parts of The Witch of Grič (Grička vještica), which I didn’t even know was a series, in Croatian, no less.
As I was exploring a bit more, I opened an unassuming folder and found the missing Jeanette too. I knew this would be the first book of all that I would read, I just had the device wrong.
After the first friends gave me their favourites, before the Source, I visited what appears to be the only bookshop with used English books in Roma. I was a bit disappointed with not finding a single recommended title (I did find four others that I just HAD to buy, of course).
Yes, to buy more books. (Look who’s trending now!) Photo: MM
I-have-new-books smile by the Tiber. Photo: MC
Hmm, cute but 70 EUR? Then I better buy something that holds over 1000 books. Photo: MM
When I did some online research I realised that even should I wish to buy them new, the majority of titles were only available as e-books. Then my love reminded me how I wanted to have an e-reader even before we got together. This is true but as with all technical novelties I was very apprehensive (which reminds me how I recorded my mp3 cassette as soon as I first got internet access, yes, right out of the speakers to the tape, I didn’t trust the machine).
But now, considering all of the above, we agreed that it was time, and this is the result:
My new book-KO-BOok with the first book I’m reading on it, Lighthousekeeping. Photo: MM
It even has a light to read in the dark.
For me it’s an incredible feeling: even before I actually started to read one, saving the books on the reader was like being a kid and playing with my books all over again, arranging them by alphabet, by colour, by size, except now I do it all by clicking. The first book I’m reading might be Jeanette (only proper since I wrote to her and all), but the first book I saved on it was by my dear friend Kara. She is my role-model in many ways, not only regarding her writing, also for her optimism, kindness and pure force. Now I have your fairy-tales to enjoy and compare them with my own tale.
Times sure are a-changing: my old scrapbook with poems, quotes and stuff underneath the Kobo. Photo: MM
Thank you, the Source. You have allowed me to enjoy my reader immediately and fully. Thank you, parents, for giving me the environment in which it was natural for me to come out of the bathroom and announce that there would be snow on the mount Triglav after having read it in the newspaper when I was almost too little to speak (well, truth be told, there was a picture too). Thank you, amore, for guessing my wishes, every time. Thank you, GG, for the love in your thoughts, and thank you, Kara, for the love in your words (well, and thoughts). And thank you, everybody who have given me your favourite book. I just might read it next.
Remember – reading is a job never done. It is still done with the eyes first and the mind later, only the ink might have gone electronic.
≈ Manja Maksimovič ≈
The Mexi Movie I. (closed) 