Tuesday 17 April 2012

Books glorious books!

What great news - the Cuthbert Gospels are to remain in Britain and will be on display in the North East as well as in the British Library. www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17732310

I love books. I am a hoarder of books and very rarely sell or give books away. I love to sit in a room full of books and just look at them and smell them around me. I love the tactile qualities of books, feeling their weight in my hands and turning the pages. I love to sit in a comfortable chair and read and can immerse myself in the text so that I am unaware of things going on around me.

More recently I have grown to love my Kindle. It doesn't have the feel or smell of paper books but, Oh the joy of being able to take a library with me when I go away from home.

Some books are especially precious. It might be because they are firm favourites, the novels of Jane Austen or Margaret Atwood would be among mine. It might be because they were given to me by some-one special to me or belonged to such a person, I have books that belonged to my father that I would never part with. Some might be valuable because of their rarity, none of mine come into that category.

The Cuthbert Gospels are rare, they are very valuable, they belonged to some-one special and they contain the foundational texts of the Christian faith. It is so good that they are to remain in the country and to retain the links with the North East and one of the Saints who is so special to us.
I look forward to seeing them in Durham next year.