Whoever invented the “coffee table book” probably didn’t mean for them to be portable. These days people seem to scoff at any book weighing more than a Kindle. The over-sized hardcover book is still a part of literary and decorating culture, but obviously books that are the size of small blackboards or containing more than 1000 pages add some inconvenience to the package.
I’m taking a class and just got my textbook. The questions came up as soon as I walked in the door from work: how many books did you order? When my reply was one, there was doubt. As I picked it up to release it from the usual Amazon sparingly effective packaging, I realized I had a heavy one, weighing somewhere in the range of a bowling ball (I used to use an eight pounder). Taking it to the bathroom scale, I found that the textbook weighed nine pounds.
So I have to attend classes each week toting the equivalent of a hefty newborn. Maybe I should have bought two, so both arms could get a workout. I always use totes rather than backpacks, and probably in this case that is a good idea: can you imagine the spinal agony I’d be courting if I dropped this literary piece of lead into a backpack?
I hope we use every one of the 2,000 pages in this literary behemoth. I’ll be 2,000 pages smarter and, with the workout, maybe 20 pounds lighter.
Susan's Scribblings the Blog 