The Sword and Laser discussion

I came across this paragraph early in the novel and it summed up for me how I feel about holding a new book. The prose was so perfect and beautiful, I had to highlight it and share here:

"understand that page riffling is an essential element in the process of introducing oneself to a new book. It isn't about the reading the words; it's about reading the smell, which wafts from the pages in a cloud of dust and wood pulp. It might be expensive and well bound, or it might smell of tissue-thin paper and blurred two-color prints, or of fifty years unread in the home of a tobacco-smoking old man. Books can smell of cheap thrills or painstaking scholarship, of literary weight or unsolved mysteries.'

I think I'll have to give this book a 5 star review based on that quote alone...

that quote stood out for me as well. I noticed a few meaningful quotes in this I was not expecting. the writing is so beautiful with alliterations and imagery.

This book is a love affair for reading. She really gets into the specialness of the perfect words.

My problem with this quote, which also struck me, is that the publisher chose to make this a deckle-edged hardcover. Deckled edges might make it feel 'older' - like from back in the days when you had to cut the pages - but they actively resist the subtle art of page-riffling in a way that infuriates me. We have the technology to make all the pages the same length, I think we should embrace it.

kvon wrote: "This book is a love affair for reading."

You put it more elegantly than I did when I came across those passages. In my mind I labeled that as "book porn," and I was totally there for it.

Seth wrote: "My problem with this quote, which also struck me, is that the publisher chose to make this a deckle-edged hardcover."

I am listening to the audiobook, so I entirely missed out on that physical experience with this story. I also was not familiar with the term "deckle-edged"; I have seen it before but did not realize the purpose/explanation.