Greetings,
Have I mentioned how much I love letters? Like full on, handwritten, pen and paper letters? Because I do. A lot! Maybe it's because I'm a writer. Maybe it's because not many people compose them anymore. Maybe it's because I'm a Luddite at heart. I don't know. And I understand that an email or even a text can contain the same words, but do they often? Those are things we tend to want to get done quickly, between other tasks we deem more important. But to sit down and write a letter to someone takes time and effort and a lot more thought. And I guess I love the idea of something being in one person's hand one moment and, the next, it's in the hands of someone a hundred miles away. It's something tangible and preservable and valuable.
So, imagine how thrilled I was when, years ago, as I walked through my favorite used book store (that lives no longer), I found this book called Love Letters: An Anthology of Passion. The answer is, I was very thrilled. Mostly because it is not just a book about love letters. It is something of an interactive experience. By that, I mean there are actual letters within the book, all handwritten, folded up and put into envelopes with a wax seal that you can take out and hold and read. Sadly, they are not the originals, as those would be very old and delicate and likely extremely expensive. But they are copies that look like the originals. Close enough. And I'm happy to say that someone had the good sense to type up all the contents and put it in the back of the book, because handwriting is not always the easiest things to decipher. Anyway, it's pretty amazing. Especially considering who wrote some of those letters. More on that in a moment.
This book is actually separated into different sections pertaining to the different types of letters that are being featured. There are sections for Admiration, Celebration, Devotion, so on and so on. Because there are so many kinds of love that we can write about, and I personally enjoyed seeing so many of them brought to the light. So much more than just the generic romantic love that we are all used to hearing about.
And, as I was saying before, the numerous authors featured in this book contain some well-known names. There are letters from Dylan Thomas, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Keats, just to mention a few. As expected, they are very, very good. Almost as though, they put as much effort into writing these letters as one would put into writing a novel.
Perhaps that is what engaged me about this book so much, and the lost art of letter writing. It's the fact that people didn't just dash off notes in the past, at least, not all the time. Not when something was important. And people used to view writing a letter as something incredibly important. Where every word written mattered and held together a message that could be held and embraced by someone else. It's a beautiful sentiment and I fear that so many of us have lost it. And the excuse is always that we don't have the time, but is that true? Or do we just not make the time?
Now I have an idea of what one can do with this book, along with my recommendation, but I will have to admit something about myself in the process. I owned this book for a very long time before I read it. I did flip through it several times, but I never sat down and read every word of it. But any book lover will know how we tend to buy books faster than we can read them, thus, causing our TBR pile to get quite Mt. Everest-y. However, this past Valentine's, I decided to partake in a 24 Hour Readathon of my own making. I figured I had nothing else to do on that day, so I might as well read, and I thought it would be the perfect day to read this one, Spoilers, it was. Anyway, this brings me to my idea. If you are in a relationship, or if you are in one when next Valentine's Day rolls around, don't go out to some fancy restaurant or to a play or a party. Just make dinner, or order in if you can't cook, and sit down with a copy of this book, and read the letters to each other. And when you finish the book, pull out a love letter that you wrote yourself. And make it a good one, darn it! So, there you are. I gave you a great idea for how to spend Valentine's Day. Or an anniversary. Or any random day that you just want to do something special for the person you love.
In closing, I highly recommend this book, especially if you want a unique experience. Or if you just want to remember how valuable the written word is. The REALLY written word.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
