“The Cemetery of Forgotten Books”

Book Summary by: tamkeen

Original Author: tamkeen

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“The Cemetery of Forgotten Books” They lie in a long narrow room. Silently settled

on the oak shelves, gathering dust. Illuminated by the pool of light cast by the lamps. They extend from ceiling to floor, aisles of them and then disappear into the deep sea of darkness. Each one has a story to tell, a message to give, a heart to touch and a life to change. A beginning, middle and an end. All written with such great care and who knows with love and reminisce. It must have taken endless sleepless nights, bent over the notebook to jot the wild ideas down, to say all that they wanted the people to know, to share, and to feel. Dozens of cups of coffee and coca to keep their mind afresh. It must have taken a year or maybe years to write those books. And then they were published and traveled many corners of the world, passed through many hands, read by thousands who in their own way liked or disliked them and now they lie there, forgotten and unwanted. I walk through these aisles many times and now I know them like a mother knows her children. For I have grew up with them. I learned my most difficult words from them and I gathered the most cherish able moments from them. Every book is different. I can tell them apart just by touching their covers their dust jackets. Tell them apart from their grains from the feel of the leather of their covers. I can tell them apart by the smell of the old paper, the crackling sound when you turn the page and most importantly by the life they narrate. The life of a woman who felt her baby growing inside her, the adventures of the young man who traveled the world, the story of a child whose childhood was stolen, the tale of a soldier who fought for the love of his country. And thousands more. A lifetime is not enough to know them all. I remember the time when my father first brought me to the library. I was amazed. And then I was asked to pick a book. That night I did not sleep. I was too mesmerized by the images that formed in my mind as I read through the book. I was ten and discovered the wonders of reading. I found my own crystal ball to discover others heart. From that moment on I developed a strange obsession with books and the place once called library. I remember people coming to the library and I remember the daze in their eyes when they were too involved in a book to care about anything else to lost to look up. But now it’s just me and the books. And the library has now become “The Cemetery of Forgotten Books” As time went by and technology fastened its grip around youngsters, they abandoned reading. A habit that was once considered essential and was must for every child to develop. Nowadays, the hobbies that dominate the big part of our youth are gaming, internet, computer games etc. They are miles away from book reading. They call it “Waste of Time” and books have become a geek-thing! But they don’t know that a wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you. There are countless reasons for this turnover. Firstly, the parents aren’t considerate enough to make sure that their children develop the habit of reading. There was a time when parents use to make sure that they take out at least 15-20 minutes for their children’s bedtime stories. This not only encouraged the children to read but it helped them to develop a deep love for books. Every next day they waited for the bedtime stories in order to find out what happened next, whether the knight found the princess? Did the Ginger Bread man survive? And many more. “Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” (Emilie Buchwald). Some Upper class individuals might have big libraries in their houses, shelves loaded with books, volumes and expensive editions but that’s mere show of how educated they want to appear. In real they have never stepped into that room once and thought about what these books contain, what are the different experiences that have once been so cautiously and comprehensively penned down in them? It is well said “Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.”(Henry Ward Beecher) There are many solutions, a lot of ways out to promote book reading such as updating or libraries, promote international book fairs, developing online bookstores, include classics as part of our syllabus, give assignments on contemporary books and using the mass media to educate our youth that book reading is journey in which one can discover things that are new and breathtaking and in other words it’s a key to know what are the lives that others are living. I''ve traveled the world twice over,
Met the famous; saints and sinners,
Poets and artists, kings and queens,
Old stars and hopeful beginners,
I''ve been where no-one''s been before,
Learned secrets from writers and cooks
All with one library ticket
To the wonderful world of books.
~ Anonymous ~