E-books. Of course we have all heard of E-books by now and as a bookseller I have faced the inevitable questions dozens of times over the past few years. Will they replace old fashioned books? Is this the end of the physical entities  that we have used since Gutenberg? Do you think they are a good thing?
  After much deep and erudite thought on the matter I have applied my accumulated knowledge from many years of bookselling and buying and reading and reached the following conclusions on these vital questions.
   I don’t know, I don’t know and I don’t know.
   I don’t know if E-books will supercede our  current method of reading, or if they will eventually mark the end of old fashioned tomes as we know them, or even if it would be beneficial in the long run. Yes, I enjoy the look and feel and smell of real books. I also know that new technology could eventually spell more access for more people and that is what made books such a revolutionary innovation to begin with.
   There. Now that I have dodged those questions I can say that I would certainly miss what is in books if they should ever cease to be available in their present form. No, not necessarily the intrinsic things that are in all good books and make them valuable beyond any monetary considerations. I wouldn’t miss the biting wit of a Mark Twain rant or the angst of a Charlotte or Emily Bronte novel. There is no reason these things wouldn’t transfer into a brave new technological form.
    I mean the things that I actually find in old books.
    Like bookmarks. The art of the bookmark goes back to the beginning of the book. If you were reading in Medieval times you had to have a way to mark your place when you stopped. Even monks go to the bathroom.
   Bookmarks have been made, like books, from every imaginable material. There are bookmarks of leather and vellum and wood and silk and ivory and paper. The ones that we find so often today are embroidered markers that became popular in Victorian times. They are common bonuses in lots of 19th and early 20th century novels and often quote a Bible verse.
   For the bookseller who buys my personal library 100 years from now I’m afraid things will be a little more boring. I usually use a matchbook cover to mark my place in a book. Actually matchbooks are the Swiss Army knives of the Crooker men. They serve as bookmarks and dental floss and emergency note pads. Occasionally we even start a fire with them.
   Like those crushed flowers that are also common in Victorian era books. Big books like Bibles and Dictionaries are the favorite spot but they turn up everywhere. Yes, decades later they have transformed into a staining, crumbly mess that pretty much obliterate the two pages called on to press them for posterity. But their poignancy is evident. Who doesn’t feel at least a little bit of a twinge at the sight of crushed roses or carnations  mashed together to mark some long ago wedding or ball.
   And speaking of poignancy how about those Christmas/Birthday/Sunday School graduation messages that  lovers of old books have found hundreds of times inside of front covers and on title pages. "To  Laura with love from Nana, Christmas 1903". "To Elizabeth  on her successful completion of 3rd grade bible class 1916". "To James, all grown up now, on his 7th birthday." They are heartfelt graffiti from the past that it would be hard to envision being scratched on the back of a futuristic E-book.
    I would even miss those little bookstore stickers. Those tiny little pieces of advertising that told you that no matter where the book is now, at one time it originated or passed through Goodspeeds or  Lauriats. They speak to a long line of book peddlers reaching back in time.
   What’s that you say? Money? Won’t I miss all the money I have found in old books over the years? I know that is one of the first questions always asked.
   "Haven’t you found lots of money in old books?  I’ve heard people used to stick lots of money in there."
    I guess I have bought most of my books from those new fangled types who believed in banks. My one and only "money in a book story" I’ve told before. I took a $10 book on the American west to a show and priced it at $10. Didn’t sell. Got back from the show,  dropped the book and out fell five $2 bills so new and crisp that they weren’t even noticeable. Someone missed out on a heck of a $10 bargain. That’s my entire portfolio of money found in books stories.
   Most of the things that fall out of books are collectable in and of themselves. Bookmarks, and flowers and bookstore stickers  and matchbooks and money all form the basis of some folk’s collections.
   As I said in my very first column for the Gavel I’m not really all that much of a collector myself. However if people want to change their ways and start stashing $100 bills in books I could probably change my mind.
   Actually I have found a collection I am starting to love -- and in the process am getting a little better feel for some of my customers’ searches and quests over the years.
  I am actually becoming a collector of sorts. Like most collectors I want to tell you about what I have started to collect and why.
   So next month I will.

About the Author: Gary Crooker is a free-lance writer and book dealer of 25 years living in Wilton, NH. Contact him at crooks@tellink.net