A book is never lonely and neither am I

A book is never lonely
and neither am I
April 25, 2015
By: Gina Yoryet Roman


“A book,

a book full of human touches, of shirts, a book without loneliness, with men and tools,
a book is victory.”
By: Pablo Neruda

A book is always accompanied, always surrounded by either objects, things, people, events, and everything else. How many hands go through one single book during its life span? Do books have a lifespan? Magnificent Books: Of life and death, of good and bad, of ups and downs, of black and white, of rough and smooth, of ugliness and prettiness, of disappointment and joy, of honesty and boldness. Of incorruptibility and reality, of company and comfort, of escape and surreality, of therapy and mastery.

A book, my books, have provided my mind, heart, soul, spirit and eye with all of this and more. How can I ever pay back all they have gifted me with? I remember very vividly of the time when one of my students told me that I bought more books than clothes. I am unbeknownst as to whether he implied it as a joke, or if he really meant it. That is irrelevant but he was right. I don´t know how, when and why my love for books sprung, all I remember is that when I was a teenager and during most of my twenties, I loathed them.

Contradictory to now that my love for writing and playing with words have been my fuel to create and follow my passion for it will be my first and foremost purpose-revealing factor. As the end of the day is drawing nearer, I reminiscence and realize that in my early years, books were my escape due  to my surroundings, not the most ideal environment to nurture a child. These soul-polluting factors contaminated me and robbed me from inner peace for many years to come. Until I got my hands on books and up to now, they have been one of my greatest allies to assuage my fears, cleanse all of me, and dictate my destiny. I tell myself time after time, “How could you have lived such an empty life without savoring the richness and wisdom of such treasures?

It is never too late! Now books are always by my side, or very close to me. I feel like Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense. “I see books, (not spirits or ghosts), I feel them, they are alive and all over the place. LOL! They haunt me everywhere I go, they resonate within. They reside in each one of my purses, in my computer bag, in my kitchen, in my living room, in my bathroom, on my desks, by my laptop and my pc, in the trunk of my car, in the glove compartment, sometimes in my pocket (the pocket version ones), on my bed, under my pillow, in my closet, in my drawers, in my locker at school, in my students' offices (when I lend my darlings to them), on my table. I don’t ever feel lonely without books because they open the door to unknown worlds each time my eyes take in each word.