It Smells Old

As if you didn't already think I was a nerd, I have an extra nerdy confession for today.  I love the smell of books especially old books.  Older books also tend to have thicker paper with roughened edges-I love that too.

So I was very excited to find that the library copy of Kate Seredy's White Stag possessed all of these qualities.  My excitement grew even more when I read this quote from the introduction, "Those who want to hear the voice of pagan gods in wind and thunder, who want to see fairies dance in the moonlight, who can believe that faith can move mountains, can follow the tread on the pages of this book.  It is a fragile thread; it cannot bear the weight of facts and dates."  You see it was the stories that drove me to study history-I had no interest in a long string of facts dates.  It was the stories that mattered.

Though Seredy's White Stag is short, less than 100 pages, it reads like a story that matters.  It feels like an epic.  Originally copyrighted in 1937 some of the language is dated, and I wonder how that would affect a modern students reading of this text.  To be honest, I think it would deter a great many students.  But for those who pushed past the language, they would find a captivating tale of the Huns and Magyars as they search for their permanent home.

Though not quite as gripping as some currently popular series, i.e. Divergent, this is still a story worth reading.  As the introduction hinted it is indeed a story of faith and faeries and pagan gods, but more than that it is the story of an entire nation trying to follow their god,  and the long-promised child who guides them.

Smelling your books....that's kids stuff.