See me, feel me, touch me

If you have not already, check out the blog Night Blind, by another former "Flintoid," Macy Swain.

She has some interesting insights into the newspaper (in general) and what the printed page means to her:

It's about the senses. I love the physicality of a newspaper -- how there's something to hold in your hand, the sound of pages turning, the smell of it.

I particularly enjoyed her reference to the old card catalogs in the public library. When I was a student and I worked in the university's library (with an eye to becoming a librarian), and I was one of the people who filed those cards into those drawers.

Although on the face of it, it would seem to be a really boring task, I really loved it. It was exactly what Macy says, and more - flipping through the older cards that so many before me had touched, seeing names of books I'd never heard of, noticing the well-worn cards versus the ones that had been passed over in deference to some other tome, more useful, perhaps ...

It's the same way I feel about books. I said in an earlier post that I liked "On Chesil Beach" by Ian McEwen because, in part, it felt nice in my hands, the paper is nice and thick - and oh, all those things contribute to the enjoyment of reading.

"See me, feel me, touch me" - are we all suffering from sensory deprivation?