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Incubating a new way of engaging with & relating to my books. Every time I talk about my books I get a couple of randos in my mentions calling me weird or overdramatic, but it’s a simple truth that the history of my relationship with my books is foundational to who I am https://t.co/bA7gkiOWcX
Physical books have the capacity to become talismans - ie meaningful objects that themselves represent something of emotional significance. I’m starting to lean towards “a book should *evoke*, or be digital” Yeah... riffing off of “does it spark joy” https://t.co/70ziTqmwlW
You may have seen me wearing this - I bought it from this older man in SF who spent his youth travelling through Morocco, Egypt, etc. We talked for 20 mins about art & passion & love. He’s one of me. Talismans are simply objects with stories that are meaningful to you https://t.co/3xWT30P5uD
There is a chance though, if you’re like me, to fall into a sort of trap of “pedestalizing sacredness” - ie the books become things that you revere without touching. This is not how I want to live. Books are for touching, engaging with https://t.co/3YIhhjf1ZW
Made a difficult decision today: I’ve decided I’m going to start dog-earing my books. My subconscious finds this disrespectful, but I’ve decided that if it helps me read more, that’s a higher class of respect (to actually engage with the material) A book is a thread of chapters https://t.co/pkRZaZo12H
I’m starting to think now of my library as a sort of fractal thread of threads of my engagement with ideas, with representations - my relationship with each book is marked by my notes and scribblings in them https://t.co/EwdG7zXmmi
I think reflecting on this has slightly changed the way I approach doing book threads. I used to do threads as-I-read, which was kinda slow and tedious. I'm now finding it kinda smoother to first take notes in the book, then do the thread by reviewing the amount of ink/page https://t.co/6RdX18A7xD
I started this thread after spending a few minutes touching, reading, and writing in one of my books - I felt more energized for it. I felt an echo of what I felt as a child, reading for the sheer pleasure of it. Somehow I had lost touch with that tremendous sensation https://t.co/NyNc6bnmB0
