C.S. Lewis on Loving Books
Surprised by Joy (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: 1955), 164.
One other thing that Arthur taught me was to love the bodies of books.
I had always respected them. My brother and I might cut up a stepladder
without scruple; to have thumb-marked or dog's-eared a book would have
filled us with shame. But Arthur did not merely respect, he was
enamored; and soon, I too. The set up of the page, the feel and smell
of the paper, the differing sounds that different papers make as you
turn the leaves, became sensuous delights. This revealed to me a flaw
in Kirk. How often have I shuddered when he took a new classical text
of mine in his gardener's hands, bent back the boards till they
creaked, and left his sign on every page.
On Who & Why We are

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