Book Bound

In this week’s Travel section of the NY Times, there was a featured article on the Mission District of San Francisco, an area replete with independent bookstores, cafes and theaters, a veritable Mecca for bibliophiles of all stripes and colors. At the article’s end, I was ready to pack my bags for a literary destination vacation. One of my favorite activities in Richmond is strolling through Cary Town and the Fan district with my wife and dog, popping into used bookstores such as Chop Suey Books and Black Swan Books.

This article reminded me about a very cool read that I picked up in Argentina last August.  The book, titled Nadie acabará con los libros (No one will finish off books) is a true book lover’s book on books. Written as a series of interviews and discussions between Italian literary great, Umberto Eco and French screenwriter and book collector, Jean-Claude Carriere, the manuscript covers literary history, printing, and bookbinding, with beautifully interposed commentary on culture in general. This is a real gem from two men who revere books for their words and for their visual and tactile beauty. The authors argue that despite the Internet, blogs, and other digital media such as electronic books, there will be a continued need and preference (by some) for words in print.

When the power is out, the Internet is down, the Kindle has lost its charge or when I need to simply endure a nuclear winter, at least I will still have a book or two to keep me occupied! I hope that conventional books do not become such a rarity, confined mostly to niche followers, like vinyl records, which, despite the recent resurgence, are largely for the turntables of music lovers.