Would you care to give me a book?

Give me a book that is soft with age with the corners of its pages frayed

Give me a book that has gone yellow with time and has tears along its spine

Give me a book that was read by people long gone whose essence now lingers on its page

Give me a book that has proudly looked over generations from within an oak cabinet or perhaps one fallen in rank when a family went bankrupt and was peddled for far less its worth

Give me a book that was chanced upon by a little boy in a thrift shop and feverishly devoured by him in a night

Give me a book that was fondly remembered by a man as the book that defined his youth

Give me a book that has slept beside the pillow of a young girl now old who had written with her maiden hand her name on the corner of a page

Give me a book that once belonged to a scholar with notes along its margins

Give me a book that was held with both pride and humility by its author

Give me a book with a history and I will be happy too