I spend my days sitting on an old dusty bookshelf in a bookshop watching readers go past me without even looking in my direction. Sure, my pages are now yellow and crinkly. The stories are now old and forgotten but do people really have to ignore me? I’m just as pretty as the latest edition of a magazine. Don’t those humans always look for something vintage? Everyone has time for the diary of anne-frank, and good old Shakespere, but no one seems to care about me. Yes, Anne was a sweet little girl but I know someone who’s even sweeter-me!
Today is officially the 105th day that no one looked at me. That no one picked me up and held me in their arms and skipped past the pages. No one put me by their bedside so I would be the first thing they see in the morning. I haven’t had a new home in forever. I miss being loved. I miss being that one book that people would always show to their friends. Those posh modern novels get it all. They have the same old story yet people go mad after them. No one seems to realise that the real treasure has been sitting here, right here, in aisle four of this bookshop.
I’ve put my hopes up for too long. How monotonous life has become! No excitement, no thrill. Just because I’m a little older than the rest doesn’t mean I don’t long for the adventure. I yearn for it more than I ever did.
I dream of the day someone would care enough to at least acknowledge my presence, that would suffice. I hope I’d get a home, where I’d be more than just a book on a shelf. I’ll be part of someone’s story, someone’s life and that would be the biggest gift of all.
But in the end, life is a journey. We need to face it, even if there are times I feel lonely, even if there are times I feel overwhelmed, it’s okay. Because this too shall pass.
~Book Thoughts of a book voiced by Rishona Chopra, Grade IX, Gyanshree School
