paper, piano, and polaroid sentimentality

i love the physical presence of books in a room, sitting quietly on coffee tables and bookshelves... always there, just in case you need an excuse to sit down and enjoy the moment.

stacks of books, organized by color

sure: i concede that digital and audio books serve their purposes -- effectively getting information across, saving paper, etc. it's just that i am a sentimentalist who loves the paper. the tactile experience, the smell and the physicality of a book.

music books

there are also various piles of music books around the house, serving much the same purpose -- a physical representation of an offer to escape and imagine. some of those books sit on top of our very old and out-of-tune, upright piano. but it's a piano... not a perfectly in-tune, plastic keyboard. and i'll take the former any day.

hoots on a typewriter

another slightly impractical but treasured item in our house is our typewriter. sometimes jamie and i use it when we're trying to get ideas out for stories. the creative process is so different (compared to using a computer keyboard). with a typewriter, you have to type more deliberately, while listening to the whirrs and taps, watching the ink hit the page. there is no backspace. there is complete freedom in adjusting the page. there is a much more physical experience than sitting at a computer, no?

prints for a pretty album

so, perhaps it won't come as a suprise that i love photo albums. this afternoon, i treated myself to new prints to add to isaiah's album. (did you know costco's 4" x 6" prints with borders are only $0.13 apiece? they look as good as wolf camera's prints to me...)

the awesome convenience of digital images has its purposes. i have loads of pictures on our external hard-drive, in online albums, and on this blog... and i shoot with a nikon d50. but for me, none of it can replace the physical album.

and, secretly, i'm hoping for a holga for christmas. or at least some polaroid film.