Out of Print

The announcement yesterday that the Encyclopedia Britannica would no longer put out printed books filled me with a bittersweet feeling. My father bought us the Encyclopedia when we started college. He loved knowledge, and was so proud of his purchase for us. He passed away in 2008, amidst great family strife, and I do not know what became of the collection or any of his possessions. My father loved books and I can easily say I inherited my passion for reading and knowledge from him. By the time I was thirteen, I was reading French literature, like "Le Lion", by Joseph Kessel, a marvelous book that probably laid the foundation for my passion for animals and their needs and rights. He also recommended the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud,Alphonse Daudet, like "Lettres de mon Moulin". He recommended a magical book by a young French writer, "Le Grand Meaulnes " by Alain Fournier, a book that positively haunted me with its beautiful language and story. Before I was sixteen, I was reading Gogol, Tolstoy, and by the time i finished highschool, I had read most of Heinrich Boll's novels, was familiar with the poetry of Kahlil Gibran and had fallen in love with "Stray Birds" of Rabindranath Tagore.My father had a subscription to National Geographic, which he had bound by years in leather, and form the time I was eight, I traveled all over the world in those magazines. I read a ton of fairy tales, that enchanted me as much with the art of their pictures as they did their stories. I had a marvelous pop-up book, a Flemish version of an oriental tale, called "The Flying Suitcase", that spoke of a man who traveled allover the world in a magical suitcase. To this day, I remember exactly the magnificent shimmering blue gown of the princess he met. To me, a quiet, solitary child, books were companions, teachers, friends. they were treasures to revisit time and again. To this day, I collect books. I love the travel novels of Colin Thubron, the novels of Amy Tan, the writing of Chang-Ray Lee, Anchee Min, Khaled Hosseini, Lisa See, Jon Katz. I devoured Toni Morrison' novels that I thought were linguistic and literary wizardry. Books helped shape my psyche, my heart and are everywhere in my house. I cannot imagine my world without their presence, physically and emotionally.