Creation and Re/Creation: Writing and Reading a Book

And so my book, today you are launched into the world.

Already you are in the hands of book reviewers across the nation, from the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times, and many points in between. May they read you and have good things to say about you.

The hard cover version of you is taking a short journey to Michigan, then New Jersey, where you will be warehoused and distributed to bookstores, and then put on bookshelves or sent to readers who order  you online.

You have been digitalized and will be available a few days from now for instantaneous electronic distribution, so that people who want to store you on a cyber bookshelf instead of a wooden one can do that.

As an expression of the imagination, writing a book is one type of creative literary experience. Reading is a similar creation, a mindful activity that allows a re-invention (re-creation/recreation) of the author’s vision. Reading is the other half of the creative process. Yes, the reader is your creator too, book, an artist who works alongside your author. Both accomplish feats of literary imagination only humans are capable of. Through the reading of a book, a unique bond is formed between writer and reader, and it all starts with you, book, with the words journeying across your pages.

In your preview form, you enticed Library Journal to read you, who told the world you are a “smashing debut,” that you have “astute observations and gorgeous prose,” that your author  “crafted a suspenseful thriller.” Three other well-known mystery authors read you, and had great things to say, too.

Oh, book. These first readers have told your author that her vision for you was achieved far beyond her expectations. She had hoped to have a book published one day, and that happened. But to hear that it’s you, book, who are making the exact impression she hoped you would, is a dream come true.

How wonderful it is to hear of your noteworthy impact on such important influencers of book buyers. Beyond that, it’s a beautiful feeling to hear an objective, reputable reviewer say that your prose is gorgeous. This phrase has been singing in your author’s head from the moment she heard it, and it inspires her to work hard on her next creations so that they are just as gorgeous, just as astute.

I hand you off, my creation, and send you out into the world, to readers everywhere. I hope as you take your journey through other imaginations, that you provide a pleasant re/creation for an afternoon, a plane ride, or wherever you may find yourself read.

Enjoy the trip.