Inside a Book ©
By
Michael Casey
Well Jeff Bezo was in the news, news not nude, you all have one track minds, he donated to help bricks and mortar book shops here in UK, so God Bless him for that. And because I read that headline you are getting this, so blame him, he had done it anonymously but it slipped out, STOP, I know where your minds are going just stop and behave, or beehive if you’ve seen Nanny McFee. So, I was thinking about Books and what it must be like, from the inside.
I love it when I’m being read, all open and people turning my pages, or rather that one special person who picked me up from a shelf in a book store and read my back and then smiled and ruffled my pages. It’s all so very romantic having your pages ruffled, then being held against a chest as the Reader is so happy to have discovered me. Trump’s guide to Honest and Integrity. Or maybe Michael Casey’s The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker, until they read it and think it’s a load of old cobblers, and I don’t mean like a shoemaker either.
So, you are sniffed and stroked, perfect foreplay for any new book, perhaps Bezo should add a scent feature to his Kindle, a new book has a feel and smell, and the pages are tight, and have to be smoothed down. But today’s books don’t have large type, just small small print as it’s easier to produce, maybe Jeff should add a magnifying glass stuck to the back, or invent a projector device that castes the pages to the ceiling. Well curled up in bed with a good book with the cat too, the ceiling is the best place to read words. And should your lover arrive the book isn’t squashed as it’s being projected and protected to the ceiling from its spot on the bedside cabinet.
How do the words feel inside the book? The cover can be embossed and it’s like a blind man feeling for lumps on your face. Then there may be a dust cover that is ever so brightly coloured, but it can be discarded like a dressing gown to reveal itself in all its glory, once satisfied the dust cover returns. Maybe Bezo can add a few tricks to a Kindle so it’s like the curtain being raised at a theatre before each chapter. Blurring the boundaries between book and film, in a tiny tiny way. Feel free to reward me Jeff.
What about the words on a page, the font really is ever so important, as I’ve said recently Amiri font in my new favourite font, and writers think a lot about what and how their words appear on a page. Maybe some words in the middle of a page should be embossed, like hills and hillocks, or maybe just those words, so you have a more interactive sense of the words on the page. Cartoons or Illustrations are of great use, and if I could draw I’d have one cartoon per story or per chapter, my daughters did do drawings for 2 of my first books, the cover art. If only I could bribe or persuade them to do more, hey Jeff how did you Bezo your kids into helping you? See I turned you into a verb, almost parity with Google. As you read all this I am Michaeling you, which is where I make you laugh despite or is it because of the bemusement.
So, the pages turn and the story unfolds, the cartoon of Winnie the Pooh where the pages appear and Pooh slides through them was my original starting thought as I started talking, but as ever I’ve Michaeled myself, so you have a different strand of thought. I was going to write how words feel, but I may come back to that another time, there’s always more in the soup. You could have scents, appear as a chapter ends and so one, like the old cinema where you squeezed a scent at various points in the film, that was a very long time ago now. Interactive books, and you sell refills for books. And why do we need all these tricks and addons? Because people lack imagination maybe, because they are use to TV, with too many adverts, which actually spoil the story, hence Streaming Tv takes over, as you avoid ads.
A tv show will die if it doesn’t have a good pace to it, people want quick fixes. But with a book it’s a slow build love affair, the cast is introduced and you get to know them, and hate them especially if it is a book you are forced to read for English Literature. Read the book at least twice first before the English Teacher instils hatred for life for the text. Don’t judge a book by its cover either, especially mine, I put my photo on them so you know who to blame, and because there are several Michael Casey’s I am of course the most original one. No smirking I know what you are thinking already, of course I do, I’m writing this sentence, so whatever you are thinking only my opinion is on the page. See Writers are power mad, FOOLS.
The ending of a book ties up all the strands, as we are told a book should have a beginning a middle and an end. It can annoy as well, you didn’t get the ending you hoped for. In K-drama there are many many twists and turns and the quality is so high, 16 hours is the norm, and why are Koreans so rich and good looking? In a book you have 10 hours to get people’s attention, or 20 hours for The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker as it’s 600 pages. So, people will read your words in sessions, and you have to hope they carry on reading. Reading is a more intimate experience, it’s one on one, like love making. So, the writer gets to influence the reader and can touch them emotionally, with a good story you can excite, entertain, scare, bring hope, bring fear. But in the end you can also bring tears of joy.
The day I first finished the book it was Leap Years Day 1988, and I cried as I finished up the story and wound myself up to write it, I knew I’d finish on Leap Year’s Day, so I was excited and happy. I’d actually written a full lenghth book, on a typewriter perched on a stool while I sat on a broken-backed barn chair.
The original typescript on actual paper was 238 pages, but I wanted to put it on a computer so I started to copy type it, which was boring, so I expanded the story, and that’s what you all read now. The book from a couple of years later. The last word in the book is there for a reason, for it signifies Hope, and much more, you need read it for yourself. Thousands of you have via my Wordpress in multiple languages, up to 10 different languages on the same day. And if you want my Original English it is on Amazon, just look for my silly face.
Inside a book, is more than words on a page, you are inside the writer’s head, or the story in his head. It’s the difference between looking at a cover, and what is beneath the covers. So, tonight and every night curl up with something nice beneath the covers, and I hope it is not a book, but a book is the 2nd best.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-Casey/e/B00571G0YC/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
