Go Sit in the Corner

Go sit in the corner of any library.  A bookstore will do but for me there are too many distractions in a store.  (Ignore that really cute guy over there in the Self-Improvement Section.  Besides, if he requires self-improvement, you don’t need him.  And there are no coffee shops loaded with chocolate and caffeine in libraries.)  Relax and sit.  (Turn off the Inner Critic and the rock music.)  Sitting and thinking is something we have trouble accomplishing now-a-days.  Don’t read and no people watching.  Just sit there and study all the bookshelves full of books.  Take in the overall picture.  Now focus in on just one section.  Doesn’t matter what section it is; just spotlight that area in your mind.  See it?  Okay, check out just one bookshelf.  Is it sagging or leaning against its neighbors from tiredness of holding up the weight of all those tomes?  Now focus in on the shelf second from the bottom.  Is it full or are there spaces where someone had to bend over to study the titles and remove a book?  Are they all the same height or resemble a snaggletooth Halloween pumpkin grinning back at you?  Are they that dusty brown of old books or a rainbow of photo-shopped covers?  Pick one book.  Doesn’t matter which one, you’re not going to read it or even touch it.  Just pick one and study it.  Imagine how it will feel.  Old books have texture on the outside where new ones are smooth.  How much weight will it have against your hand?  Can you hold it in one palm while drinking coffee with the other or is it so large you have to cradle it in both hands?  Crack it open.  Does it smell of old paper or that inky smell some books have?  (I love finding things previous readers have stuck between the pages.  I recently found an Amtrak stub.  At least someone is getting out, just not me.)  Examine one page.  Is the paper so thick you can’t tell if you’re turning one page or two or is so tissue thin, you’re afraid to touch it?  Look at the paragraphs filling up the page from top to bottom, margin to margin.  Is the print so large you wonder if there weren’t enough words to fill up the whole book or is the font so tiny you need extra strength reading glasses?  Sentences composed of work after word.  Don’t read but look at the pattern across the surface.  Straight lines, curves and dots all swimming on a sea of white.  One letter snuggling up to the next, letters building to make one word, words strung together to compose one sentence, sentences stretching into paragraphs.  Now back out and look at the page, the book, the shelf of books, the bookshelf full of books, the entire section of nothing but book laden bookshelves (that guy’s mustache … no, stop that, no distractions) and the entire library filled with nothing but books.  (And yes, the DVD’s, audio books and ebooks count because they’re made up of words too.)  Now think about this.  No matter what method was used from quill, pencil, pen, typewriter, word processor or computer, every one of those books started with an idea and a blank white page where someone wrote just one very first word.  Enough first words written on that bare white sea to fill up this library and all the libraries across the world.  So why are you sitting in the corner of the library (looking like a geek with no book, staring off into space and the mustache left) instead of going home and facing that empty page.  Remember, it only takes just one first word to get started.