Books! My Committed Love Affair
Feb 19, 2021 - By Lynette Joseph-Sankey
(Creative Commons)
My introduction to books began at age 2. Mom read stories to me every day until I was able to read my own stories. Then, one day after my 6th birthday, mom got me all dressed up, we went outside and hailed a taxi. We drove for a long time, then got out in front of a big red building, Carnegie Free Library, San Fernando (Trinidad).
Inside, I had to look way up to see the top of the shelves as we walked between rows and rows of books of every size, shape and colour. I felt like jumping up and down as I was so happy to be surrounding by many books. But it was so quiet in the library that I just walked around with mom, until I found the books I liked.
I took a journey to see how books were made, and discover an amazing fact that stayed with me: earlier books before paper, would have been very heavy to carry in my school bag. Now, take a walk with me on that journey to form your own opinion.
What were books made from?
Clay Tablets were inscribed with triangle shapes in 3500 BC Mesopotamia; Papyrus Scroll was made from the papyrus plant, cut into thin strips, put together, glued and dried flat to produce scrolls in 3000 BC Egypt; Parchment was made from animal skin: goat, calf or sheep, the name came from the Greek city of Pergamum, in 500 BC, and imagine Wax Tablets were blocks of wood, coated with wax, then joined with cords to form a “Codex”, developed by Romans and Greeks in 200 BC.
There you have it! Which one would you have chosen to carry in your school bag (well, before backpacks?).
Surprisingly Paper making included cannabis, and was invented in China by Cai Lun, who used a combination of bark, hemp, mulberries, old rags and fish nets for the creation of a paper pulp in 105 AD.
When was the first book printed? In 868 AD in China, on blocks of wood with characters carved in reverse order, that technique was called “block printing.”
Chlorine had a big role in book development as it was used for bleaching paper by 1800.
Later many different styles of books were introduced to the world including Penguin paperback in 1935; microprocessor reader in 1971; books on CD in 1985; World Wide Web 1989; more recently online books, Google and E- books. For more information, go to https://sfbook.com
A book touches me deeply and brings me back to happy memories of mom reading to me. I get emotional and engrossed when I read a book, because books led me to where I am today. So, I wrote one to encourage people to become nurses.
Remember: pick up a book today at your favourite book store or library! Read every day.
Additional information is on my video:
How wonderful Lynette, that a public library was such a great motivator and inspiration for you in your life.
That your love of books led you to author one yourself just might inspire others in our community to do so, bravo!