The book from my own library that caught my eye is one called "this book wrote itself". It caught my eye because it is a simple book, black and white cover, with what looks like a spiral binding printed on the edge.
On page six I put my finger right in the middle of the page. My finger landed on a sentence that read "my father meditates to my right". The letter p is seen five times in this paragraph.
The paper is smooth and feels thick. The cover is thicker and has a roughness to it. I cannot feel the ink on the words. There are no colors on the cover. Even through the paper seems thick, I can see trough it when I hold the page to the light and see the letters on the opposite side. The cover can be seen through as well.
The book has been stapled together it the middle. This is a book a bought from am independent poet traveling through town a few months ago. It is a paperback book. This book does not have a signature and it has no glue on the spine. This book was stapled together.
This book has no other writing in it than the printed words. It is exciting to be the first one to write in it. I typically always highlight or underline lines or phrases in poetry books that I find inspiring. I like knowing that any notes I make are mine, for my own personal reference.
There are no stains on the book. The edges of the pages have some wear and dirt to them. I'm sure this happened in transit of the traveling poet. This boom has no fingerprints, it has had a very delicate life so far.
The pages are fairly close to white. The have a little grey to them, but overall they are a very, bright close-to-white color. The other visual element I really enjoy is e spine. While it is printed on the cover, it looks like the spiral of a notebook. This makes you feel like book is very organic, like it came directly from the author's hand without edit.
The only evidence I see that someone else handled the book is the wear on the edges of the pages. It really can only be seen when a section of the pages are examined together. I'm sure other people who have read this book thought it was very unique and a personal look at the author's thoughts. I do not think anyone else has examined the boom in the same way I have today.
The sound of the pages flipping is a low, quick flip. I feel the short breeze coming from the pages moving. I was not successful at moving another object with the book. It is very small and does not create much of a gust. I do not think I would win any games with this book's power (unless the game was flip the pages and don't move anything).
The book barely makes a sound when dropped. It does not leave any vibrations for my feet to feel. There was no difference when I removed my shoes.
The book does not necessarily feel cold. Surprisingly I did notice a temperature change. I have never noticed this before. I do not think I have ever noticed this because I never thought about it. I think I thought more about the content of the book and what I was reading than the way it looked and felt.
The book smells fresh and clean. It almost smells like laundry soap, that freshness of a dryer sheet.
The title of this book is "this book wrote itself". Her first poem is a response to Allen Ginsberg. I think is fits the title because the first poem because it wa inspired by another person. The poem she wrote was a response to someone else that naturally flowed for her experience on that day.
I think the biggest new experience I had was smelling the book. That had absolutely never occurred to me to do that. I have NEVER found books to be boring. I am somewhat of an addict and love them immensely!
You fishbowled the assignment by giving us specific things to focus on when looking a specific item. We had to get a book and we had to look for particular things and respond to particular questions. I think the point of this exercise was to get beyond the cover of the book and to explore a book further. As we move to more and more digital books, I think the point was to see the romance in an actual book. My takeaway is just that sometimes there are new ways to look at anything that you are very familiar with. No matter how much you know about an object (or anything) you can always learn something new.
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