Beyond the Halls: Author's Note

An excerpt from the Author’s Note of ‘Beyond the Halls: An Insider’s Guide to Loving Museums’

Take a Whiff

Hey, you. Yeah, you. The one who just pulled this book from the shelf. First, howdy! I’m thrilled to see you holding a real, physical text in your hands. I’m sure you’ve spent the better portion of the last week on various screens. Take a break, take a load off, and read this book.

I know I’m not alone when I say that I long for the tangible. I love having a book in my hands: the smell, the feel, the look. You just took a whiff, didn’t you? That smell only gets better with age. I can’t help but buy more books whenever I go to the bookstore, even though I haven’t finished more than half the books I own. Even in the digital age, thousands of bookstores and libraries across the country are still thriving—which tells me I’m not the only one who still craves the tangible.

A study conducted by Canon USA found that 65 percent of adults prefer the “tactile experience” of reading a book. [1]

Perhaps I am an absolute sucker for vinyl for similar reasons: the way the needle glides over every ridge; the way the crackles add a personal, unique quality to the music. The vinyl doesn’t crack the same every time you play, and no two records are scratched in the same place. Even though vinyl records became an antiquated technology with the advent of compact discs, they are making a comeback. Contemporary artists are releasing new albums and producing them on both digital and vinyl. This tells us something about how humans tend to romanticize a nostalgic past.

Even though you can read this book digitally, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing how far you’ve made it through the book by the placement of your bookmark. Even though you can listen to Queen on Spotify, there’s nothing like experiencing the music how it was meant to be listened to on vinyl. Even though you can see hundreds of thousands of images of the Mona Lisa online, there’s nothing like the real thing.

I’ve learned about hundreds of famous people, events, and objects in human history; I’ve seen and read content of the same volume in textbooks. But seeing John Hancock’s signature on the Declaration of Independence, touching a piece of the moon, gazing up at The Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel...these are experiences unlike any other.

This book is all about hanging onto the materialism of human culture. In an increasingly digital world, it’s important to remember where we’ve been as we continue moving forward. How do we do that best? With museums.

You don’t have to be a museum lover like me. In fact, maybe it’s better if you’re not. I don’t need to preach to the choir if you’re already on the bandwagon, to mix a metaphor. But if you think museums are boring, dusty, and not worthwhile, allow me to show you a new perspective.

References

1 Duffer, Ellen. 2019. “Readers Still Prefer Physical Books”. Forbes.Com.