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Liz Gwedhan's avatar

Thank you for sending me here John. It was lovely to read something from someone who feels the same way about their library as I do. Our books are truly the story of our lives.

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John Paul Hernandez's avatar

Thanks for visiting :)

I agree!

It’s nice to find someone who shares the same passion.

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Julia ᡣ𐭩's avatar

Hi John, thank you for this post. I really resonated with it. Sentimental books are so precious and I know I have some myself. Not only from parents/grandparents, but also just older copies I find in thrift stores that are special to me.

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John Paul Hernandez's avatar

Thank you Julia! That means a lot to me.

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Nooks and Crannies's avatar

Hi John ! I love your perspective. We indeed are an extension of the physical reality we immerse ourselves in. Isn't who we are the summation of memorable things? I think we are! There's something so visceral about holding an object that embodies a meaningful moment in the past!

I'm the type of person who loves to take pictures of the beautiful things I randomly come across. I end every day with at least 20 new images in my camera roll, but by the end of the week, they all seem to disseminate in the memory of my phone. It wasn't until I started choosing 1 photo per day, printing it, adding it to my scrap book, that I felt a sense of ownership of my identity. I'm sure your library is where you feel most at home with yourself!

I'm glad I came across your work! I’m an architect and I write about sensory spaces; the invisible emotional layers of space that often go unnoticed. I seek to make them tangible! I just started a new biographical series on the memory of childhood spaces and how we keep finding them even after we’ve physically left/after they cease to exist. I think you might enjoy reading!

Here’s a few links with more information if you're interested.

Here’s more about the series:

https://open.substack.com/pub/sabinehabib/p/spaces-we-grew-up-in?r=5cdgwb&utm_medium=ios

Here’s the first chapter of the series:

https://open.substack.com/pub/sabinehabib/p/twenty-blocks-of-playground?r=5cdgwb&utm_medium=ios

So nice to meet you!

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John Paul Hernandez's avatar

Thank you for your kind words! Yes, your photo idea is another way to make things more real and memorable...I love that! I subscribed to your newsletter, and I look forward to reading your work. Thanks for reading!

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Sep 28
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John Paul Hernandez's avatar

Thank you! I love that metaphor of an anchor.

My copy of Don Quixote is definitely one of them. Dante’s inferno does that for me too. And I find my sci-fi collection is a great source of liveliness just because of its massive creativity and world-building attributes.

Another category that I feel is overlooked is biographies and histories—like Walter Isaacson’s works. Each work brings great minds and leaders back to life and humanizes them.

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Sep 28
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John Paul Hernandez's avatar

Nice! I have a biography of Cleopatra and can't wait to dig in.

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