SCATTERBRAINED: Times They Are a-Changin’

By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com

Francisco E. Jimenez

Francisco E. Jimenez

It is amazing the affect our senses can have on our lives, on our memories and the decisions we make. I have been known to purchase music, even if it is terrible, simply for the memories they evoke. Certain tastes can take me to my grandmother’s house on Christmas morning. Certain scents can make or break certain moments (especially those involving flatulence).

But I like to think of a different scent that brings me great joy. I am talking about the scent that I can only find when I walk into Barnes & Noble. The smell of all those books, the steamy smell of roast from the fresh brewed coffee – it’s intoxicating.

More so, the feeling of holding a paperback book, smelling the pages of a book that has probably never been opened, the warmth of a fresh cup of coffee in the palm of my hand. The whole experience is both a blessing and a curse.

I once invested money (lots of money) in an eReader. It was convenient, technologically advanced (for me, at least) and it made me feel awesome. But I always found myself returning to hardcopy books. I missed the feel, the smell and the conversations with other avid readers.

I don’t think there is ever a time that I don’t have a book with me. I have even brought some of my hundreds of books and placed them on my desk at the office… just something to read while I eat my lunch. Some brain food.

Now, though, it seems like print books are becoming a thing of the past. Borders has gone out of business, and Barnes & Noble looks like it will soon follow suit. And I hate it. I hate it so much that I haven’t even turned on my eReader in almost a year. Yup, hundreds of dollars of money invested in digital copies of books and magazine subscriptions just put away because I prefer the physical, concrete copies. I want to save my own copies of books and magazines, like a trophy, and look back on them. On the joys it brought to me, on the memories it helped create.

Call me old-fashioned, but the times they are a-changin’.

Oh, I almost forgot, my sister told me to mention her in one of my columns.

Read this story in the Feb. 24 edition of the San Benito News, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.sbnewspaper.com/2013/02/22/scatterbrained-times-they-are-a-changin/

1 comment

    • Its plain and simple on February 23, 2013 at 10:39 am
    • Reply

    Lol….funny…..but true times are changing..(sigh..)..u could of at least mentioned her name…lol

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