Old books are beautiful
Their pages fragrant with time
Old books are made of history
Through them, ghosts live again
Each book is an author’s dream
Pulled from the clouds
Spirit captured in print
Emblazoned on candle-glow pages
Purchased in shops long closed
Read in homes since vanished
Old books have survived wars
And speak in silence
They are childhood’s companion
And age’s comfort
Old books still enchant
A repository of myth, faery, poetry, philosophy,
Sinners, saints, delinquents, kings, queens, libertines
Hellfire, incense, romance, consequence, superstition and erudition
Old books have known as much of life
As you or I
And as long as we read them
Old books never die
Nina Antonia 