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The Hindu
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Leatherbound & Glossy: A Shelfside Dialogue
The library was hushed, wrapped in the stillness of midnight. Dust motes danced in moonlight filtering through the stained-glass windows, casting kaleidoscopic shadows on the tall oak shelves. Amid this sacred silence, where whispers of centuries echoed between bindings and pages, something extraordinary stirred. Two books lay side by side on the 'Staff Picks' display—an accident, perhaps, or a whim of the librarian. One wore a worn leather jacket with faded gold embossing on its spine. The other gleamed with a glossy, colourful cover and a proud sticker that read New York Times Bestseller—22 Weeks in a Row. The Classic shifted slightly, its spine creaking. 'So,' it said with a voice as deep as mahogany, 'how long have you been here?' The Bestseller responded brightly, voice crackling like fresh print, 'Three weeks! It's been wild. People can't stop picking me up. Just yesterday, someone spilled coffee on me while crying during chapter twelve.' The Classic chuckled softly. 'Crying in chapter twelve already? That's impressive.' 'Thanks! Emotional resonance, you know?' The Bestseller leaned closer, whispering like a conspirator. 'You should see how quickly I'm flying off shelves. Third reprint already. They say I've touched lives. Changed them.' The Classic paused, thoughtful. 'And in a few months?' The Bestseller hesitated. 'Well, I'll be in paperback by then. More affordable, more accessible. Mass market. Maybe a movie deal.' 'Ah yes,' the Classic said. 'The bright blaze.' There was no malice in the Classic's tone—only memory. Age had given it a certain softness, like the patina on antique wood. 'What about you?' the Bestseller asked. 'You don't even have a dust jacket. People barely touch you.' The Classic smiled. 'No one touches me quickly, but many return. I've been here for over a century. I've heard revolutions unfold in whispered debates by the fireplace, seen lovers carve initials into the tables while quoting my lines. I was once banned. Then mandatory reading. I've been blamed for rebellion, praised for enlightenment.' The Bestseller blinked. 'You were banned?' 'Yes,' the Classic replied. 'For ideas considered too dangerous, too liberating. Once, a man smuggled me across a border stitched into the lining of his coat. He taught young girls to read with me in secret. They whispered my words like spells.' 'Wow,' said the Bestseller, humbled. 'There's a story,' the Classic continued, voice falling into a rhythm like a grandfather's tale, 'about a soldier during the war. He found a tattered copy of me in the rubble of a library. The cover was gone. The first few chapters, too. But he read what remained every night under candlelight, amidst the echoes of gunfire. He said I gave him something to live for. He sent me back home with his daughter when the war was over. She still visits. Sometimes she brings flowers.' The Bestseller was quiet for a moment. 'I suppose I don't have stories like that,' it said softly. 'Yet.' 'Time writes them,' the Classic said. 'Not all books are meant to become echoes. Some are sparks.' 'Sparks?' 'Quick to light. Beautiful. Brief. But necessary to ignite something greater. Perhaps you are one of those.' The Bestseller considered that. 'But what if I fade? What if I become irrelevant?' 'You will,' the Classic said gently. 'Everything does. Even I. There were decades I lay untouched. A relic. Then someone picked me up again, and suddenly I was alive. Not as I was, but reborn in meaning. Sometimes obscurity is not the end. It's the soil from which a second life begins.' The Bestseller sighed. 'That's comforting. And terrifying.' The silence stretched between them, not awkward, but companionable. A clock somewhere chimed two. 'Do you ever miss it?' the Bestseller asked. 'The crowds, the attention?' 'I remember it,' the Classic said. 'I once caused riots in a small European town. Readers argued whether my protagonist was a hero or a villain. One man refused to speak to his brother over a difference in interpretation. That sort of passion is rare. But I do not miss it. I cherish it.' The Bestseller laughed. 'I had a hashtag trend last week.' The Classic raised an eyebrow. 'Is that a new kind of literary review?' The Bestseller grinned. 'Sort of. It's like a digital echo. Faster, louder. But it fades just as fast. I envy your staying power.' 'And I,' said the Classic, 'envy your spark. I remember what it felt like to be new. To be discovered.' They sat in silence again, listening to the hum of moonlight. 'Tell me something,' the Bestseller said, voice hushed. 'What makes a book a classic?' The Classic didn't answer immediately. When it did, its voice was like the rustle of old pages. 'Endurance. Relevance. The ability to be reborn in every age. A classic isn't loved for being old. It is old because it has been loved long.' 'Do you think I could be one?' 'Perhaps,' the Classic said. 'You have heart. Voice. Urgency. But only time can decide. And readers. They are the true judges. A book becomes a classic not when it is written, but when it is remembered.' Outside, dawn touched the edge of the sky with the softest brush of gold. Footsteps echoed down the corridor—perhaps the librarian returning, or the early birds arriving with steaming mugs and quiet minds. 'I suppose this is goodbye,' the Bestseller said. 'I'm likely to be checked out again.' 'Then go well,' the Classic replied. 'Be read. Be wept over. Be shared. That is what we were made for.' The Bestseller lingered a moment longer. 'Thank you. For the stories. For the wisdom.' 'And thank you,' said the Classic. 'For reminding me what it feels like to be new.' Moments later, a young woman walked into the library, her eyes scanning the shelf. Her hand paused, then reached not for the glossy cover—but for the worn leather one beside it. She turned it over, smiled, and carried it to a reading nook by the window. As the sun rose, the Bestseller watched from its place on the desk, stunned into silence. The Classic, meanwhile, rested in new hands. And so, the cycle continued—of fire and ember, spark and legacy. A conversation not just between two books, but between moments and memory, between noise and nuance. Between now and forever…. 'This article is part of the sponsored content programme.'
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Stephen A. Smith Would Consider Running For President But Under One Condition
Stephen A. Smith reveals that he's open to running for President of the United States in the 2028 Presidential Election, but only under one condition. During an interview with Daily Mail, ahead of Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, La., Smith said that if he were financially set to his liking, he would make the foray into politics at the behest of the voting public. 'I have no desire to do this, but assuming that I'm well off, that I have lots of money, and money is no longer a concern,' the renowned sports pundit said of the stipulations regarding his potential candidacy. 'If the American people came to me and looked at me and said 'Yo, man, we want you to run for office,' and I had a legitimate shot to win the presidency of the United States, I'm not gonna lie, I'll think about that.' Smith continued, reiterating that his Presidential bid would be contingent on his financial stability. 'But I gotta have my money. I'm not gonna go to the White House broke,' he added. 'I'm not gonna do that. I gotta have my money. I gotta have my home. I gotta have my financial situation completely taken care of. I have no concerns if that happens for me. If they told me I had a legitimate, bonafide shot to win the presidency of the United States of America, I would entertain it.' Smith's comments regarding a run for the White House come after it was revealed in a recent poll that the Queens, N.Y. native beat out Democratic party members with far stronger political resumes. This includes former Presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke—who ran for the nomination in 2020—and Illinois governor JB Pritzker. The New York Times Bestseller also finished closely behind former Democratic vice president candidate Tim Walz, who ran alongside former vice president Kamala Harris during her own presidential campaign, and Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, in the poll, by one percentage point. The 57-year-old media personality also expressed his confidence that his presidential campaign would reign victorious over the field, including Harris, who topped the aforementioned poll with 33% over the votes. 'The part that I'm not joking about is I believe I could beat every candidate on that poll. Every candidate that they mentioned, from Kamala Harris right on down to (Pete) Buttigieg and to Tim Walz,' Smith bragged. 'I'd beat all of them. I do believe that. I really do.' More from Stephen A. Smith Admits To Feeling Like "A Damn Fool" After Voting For Kamala Harris Stephen A. Smith Defends Snoop, Soulja Boy Amid Backlash Over Trump Inauguration Performances Stephen A. Smith Questions His Vote For Kamala Harris, Believes He Was "Misinformed"
