The information age, which has rapidly burst into everyday life, has made all paper books without exception literary monuments in a matter of years. The fact that they would sooner or later turn from sources of knowledge used in everyday life into a burden that takes up a lot of space could have been guessed at the dawn of universal informatization, when the first articles appeared in the press, striking the imagination with stories about a laser CD capable of storing several hundred paper volumes onto its surface. Alas, although the theoretical calculations were fascinating then, they seemed very abstract and more relevant for some distant future.
In the much nearer future, laser disks themselves have become obsolete and unnecessary storage media, replaced by even more compact flash cards and memory cards micro-SD, the creators of which, apparently, are desperately trying to record all the information accumulated by humanity on the eye of a needle. There is no doubt that these marvels of technology will soon turn into museum exhibits, and they will be replaced by some even smaller devices with a larger capacity.
Against this background, the books still remaining at home, standing in rows on bulky shelves hanging on the walls, occupying several floors in the sideboard, and sometimes, due to lack of space, simply stored in boxes, cause more and more dissatisfaction and bewilderment. On the one hand, it’s simply a pity to turn them into waste paper, since at one time a lot of money was spent on them, and sometimes you had to sign up among those who wanted to become the happy owners of some three-volume work by Dumas or a series of adventure novels. Naturally, it is very difficult to decide to recycle the numerous touching memories associated with each of the books you read, as well as the images, thoughts and feelings generated by them.
Today, when most of the works printed in them can be, if not downloaded for free on the World Wide Web or read directly there, then certainly bought in a bookstore online shopping in electronic form and reading on a computer screen, “paper bricks” still standing on shelves and lying in boxes can cause attacks of irritation, even despite all the romantic passions that at one time generated.
That’s why, no matter how difficult it is to decide on this, it still makes sense to finally arrange an “audit” in your home library and, having selected very old and yellowing copies, still hand them over them to a recycling collection point.
Regret about the paper friends of childhood and youth lost in this way will soon be replaced by unexpected joy at how much free space has appeared in the room. By filling it, usually with souvenirs, postcards, and photographs gathering dust in boxes, you can redesign your living space, give it even greater spiritual value, and turn it into a source of new images, thoughts, projects and plans.
Today, when even brightly designed new books smelling of fresh printing ink, patiently waiting for buyers at the ruins or in specialized stores, have to enter into difficult competition with their electronic counterparts distributed on the world wide web, and sometimes completely free of charge, the question of the need to keep old collections at home stories and poems published in the 1970s, if not much earlier, seem rather strange.
“Of course, they need to be recycled, and as soon as possible, in order to make room for new books or some eye-pleasing souvenirs,” a man in the street will say and will undoubtedly be right. Moreover, old books that have accumulated dust and absorbed dampness for decades can easily become a breeding ground for fungi and a refuge for harmful microorganisms. Sometimes such books "get" and directly from the owner, inadvertently spilling tea on the pages, taking his favorite volume of poetry to the beach or using it as a stand for a teapot.
It is difficult to argue with the rational arguments that force you to get rid of old books ruthlessly and irrevocably. Sometimes it is enough to glance at their yellow pages from time to time to cast aside the last doubts and resolutely suppress sentimental memories, usually always associated with a book that, even if it has never been opened, has stood on the shelf for many years at home.
However, in those cases when the edition of the novel by Jules Verne or Leo Tolstoy, which is actually the same age as the owner, despite its considerable age, can still boast of white glossy pages, perfectly preserved hardcover and not at all faded letters and drawings, perhaps it can be spared as well as his affection for this veteran of the home library.
Naturally, it is not at all necessary to leave it in a bookcase in a conspicuous place - it is enough to allocate a cardboard box for such well-deserved copies. And, if we manage to preserve the book “lived” for more than a dozen years, then after years an unexpected meeting with it will surely revive pleasant memories of childhood and adolescence, evoke the images of beloved heroes, acquaintance with whom at one time brought so many stormy experiences, imagining the setting and locality in which this book was read many years ago.
Like the smell of a long-forgotten perfume, the old volume will instantly establish an important connection between the times for the psyche, revive the pictures of youth, unexpectedly return the faces of long-forgotten people, remind of pleasant meetings, hopes and dreams.
Even in a country with “the world's most reading metro passengers”, you can rarely find a person who regularly reads classical poetry and at least occasionally and “diagonally” glances through the works of contemporary poets. In the same subway, you can see that mass reading tastes are limited to detective stories, tabloid novels, magazines and newspapers.
Very rarely there are people there who tensely follow the train of thought of 19th century prose writers, and those who read poetry and poems look quite unusual. As a rule, these are students of language institutes, but they do not always immerse themselves in rhymes of their own free will and often get to know them closer to the beginning of the examination session.
It is noteworthy that among students among young people one can find a sincere misunderstanding of how, in general, one can regularly allocate time for reading poetry. Schoolchildren and students are ready to patiently make their way through the intricacies of intrigue that are full of old French novels and stories, but at the same time they rarely pick up Byron's poems, even if they have to read his creations just because the curriculum prescribes them so.
Meanwhile, poetic culture is fraught with an abyss of images, meanings, plots, symbols and all other engines of thought and imagination, which constitute the main value of literature. That is why even a person who reads a lot and constantly, who consciously or habitually ignores the work of famous and little-known poets, in fact limits his horizons himself, deprives himself of great pleasure from presenting the pictures set out in verse, separates himself from the most powerful philosophical and artistic tradition.
It is better to expand your circle of reading with poetic works gradually, gradually increasing the number of pages mastered. It's easier to start with one or two a day, and when you get the feeling that thoughts expressed in this form are becoming clearer, you can quickly increase the volume.
Within a month of such studies, there will be a desire to quickly study the heritage of all poets of the past or the century before last. It makes sense to support this educational impulse by attending several workshops and literary evenings where contemporary poets read their recently written works.
It would also be useful to buy several collections from them, which they often carry with them to such events, and ask to sign on the covers - who knows, maybe in twenty years these little books will become valuable literary monuments, which book lovers and collectors will be happy to purchase for a lot of money.