Foodies and wine people talk about something called mouthfeel. In this age of electronic reading devices, we book people talk about something that we could call bookfeel. I thought about this while reading poems to my daughter from a well-loved clothbound version of A.A. Milne’s When We Were Very Young. Copyright 1924 and reprinted by Dutton in 1961, the book is small in stature, with the cover exactly the size of my left hand. Its bookfeel is of linen hung too long from a clothesline. Crack it open and take a whiff, you’re back in your elementary school library. Yellowed pages, delightful line drawings by Ernest H. Shepard. Squeeze into a hammock or a creaky chair and read aloud with your best mock-Brit voice.
One Nightstand
When We Were Very Young
February 1, 2010