The books in the house are a combination of fiction, non-fiction, history, how to, recipes, children’s and a collection of various other types of books. It’s interesting to see such a weird variety of books.
The bold colors of the b immediately catch my eye as do the words Good and Evil. The book is mostly red with a touch of white and black as well as yellow. These are all very bold colors and the contrast draws my eyes to it.
When I turned to page 6 and put my finger on the page, I found a paragraph about the how and why of morality.
The letter P showed up 7 times.
The paper feels slightly rough, I’d say somewhere around a medium tooth.
The cover feels slick.
I cannot feel the ink if I close my eyes, although I almost imagine that I can. It might just be the tooth of the paper making it feel like words on a page.
There are two colors, the whitish-manilla sort of color of the paper and the black of the ink. They do not actually feel different to the touch.
I find myself wondering how the paper was made and where and by whom or what. I can see the fibers of the material.
The cover is slick and shiny. I’m wondering how it is made differently than the other pages of the book. What process and what materials were used to make it different.
This book was put together by bringing all of the pages together and gluing them to the inside of the cover. There is no cloth used in this book that I can tell. It is a paperback. There are not any signatures, the book was glued, not sewn in any way.
I see an almost grayish looking glue holding all of the pages together and the cover to all of the pages.
There isn’t any writing in the book other than the print.
It is interesting to think that I might be the first person to think about the fact that there isn’t any other writing in this book other than the print as well as think about this book in all of the other contexts I have thus far and all the ones I will.
There are no stains anywhere on the book. I can see finger prints on the cover of the book because it is a slick shiny material, but I cannot see any prints on the inside pages.
The finger prints look like tiny little swirly mazes. I’m sure there could be finger prints from the people that manufactured the book, (although it is unlikely for them to remain on there at this point), they could be from the person who unpacked it and stocked it at the bookstore, they could be from my mom (from whom I’m borrowing this book) or they could be from me or a combination of all of the above as well as others.
I think the color of the pages is more of an off-white/manilla sort of color. It is more of a warm color, but kind of dull at the same time, if that makes sense.
The book is only slightly worn on the corners of it and when you set it down the cover stays popped up from being opened so many times or for so long, it no longer lays completely flat.
The edges of the pages actually feel kind of soft, they look like they’ve been rubbed a little bit.
I know that my mom likes physical books as oppose to the electronic type books. She likes to feel the book and smell the book and be able to physically turn the pages.
I highly doubt anyone else has used this book the way I am using it right now, at least not in all of the ways I am using it. I know many people like to smell books or feel the pages and things like that, but I don’t think most people sit down to do the things I am doing right now. They may take a moment to smell it, to flip through the pages and take in a whiff of the book, but I doubt they do all of these things. They most likely just read it and then put it away. I could be wrong, but just from what I have observed of people in the past, they don’t usually examine the book this way.
The sound of the pages when I flip through the book reminds me of a small plane when it first starts up as well as the wheels on wheel of fortune and the price is right. The front and back of the cover make a louder more abrupt sound, than the other pages.
I can feel the breeze on my face and ear and I can feel my hair blowing back a little.
I pulled out a tissue and flip the book by it and it moved the tissue. It could probably move other smaller/lighter things, but not bigger/heavier things because it is not powerful enough.
I suppose you could use this book to create and win a game using the book’s wind power. Perhaps you could take a small, light object, set it on a table and see who can blow it and get it the closest to the edge of the table without going over the edge or falling off of the table.
I dropped the book on the floor several times and while similar, each time I dropped it, it made slightly different sound. However, I did notice that each time, it made two sounds, like it hit the ground and then sort of bounced and hit the ground again.
I did sense the vibration of the book. I could feel it in my feet when the book landed. I could feel a vibration as well as a breeze against my feet.
I didn’t have any shoes on to begin with, but I know that there would have been a difference. For one thing, I would not have been able to feel the breeze. For another, I’m sure having shoes on would lessen the impact I would be able to feel through my feet.
The book didn’t seem particularly cold when I first touched it, but after holding my hands there for a minute and then moving them to a different spot, that spot felt cool to the touch. I could definitely feel a temperature difference between the places I held my hands at for a minute and the ones I had not.
I have actually noticed this when reading books in the past, but I never really thought about it much until now.
I noticed it because when my hands slowly warmed up the book and then got used to the temperature, once I moved my hands the difference in temperature was a slight shock to me.
The smell makes me think of the library. My mom has worked for the library for many years and I used to go there all of the time and hang out. It also reminds me of school and bookstores and for some reason antique stores. My mom has always had a thing for how books smell. I have to and I may have gotten it from her. There are some books that smell quite pleasant and others that do not.
Ugh….can you imagine getting a paper cut on your tongue? I have never experienced this, if you have experienced this, I am sorry….yikes. It makes me cringe to think about that.
The title is The Science of Good & Evil – Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule.
I have to honestly say that just by the first page, I would not know why the book is titled so.
It certainly makes me look at all books differently now. I think I will be more conscious, at least for a while, about each book that I pick up and read. I’ve always smelt them, but now I will probably be looking at them in a whole new light. I want to find a book that is made of signatures and that is sewn, I think that would be so cool, especially if it was very old.
I only find some books to be boring, but now they all have a little more interest to them for me, which is pretty cool. I’m sure I will get distracted by these methods the next time I’m trying to read a textbook.
You made us do specific things with the book.
I think that the point of this exercise is to help us to look at things differently. To not just take things for granted so to speak. To experience things in a new and different way and to really experience them. To get us thinking about how we can do this with other things and aspects of our lives. To open our eyes a little bit more. To make things a little bit more interesting.
I think that if I am stuck when working on a project, if I think back on this assignment, I might realize that I need to take a different approach to my project, look at it in a different light.
I will be interested to see how this might play out in the near future. I will try to remember to come back and make an update on how this exercise helped me with a project.
wrightamanda 