We are taken to new worlds and introduced to beautifully flawed characters and we fall deeply in love with a story. However, like most things, there is a down side to loving books. Though books are our most loyal friends, our love for the books and the stories within them can be a double-edged sword. Here are 10 things that happen when you are a book lover!
1. When you have to put the book down for a minute and talk yourself into picking it back up because you're in emotional overload.
"Its just... a book Zaria. Just a book!"
*picks up book*
*favorite character dies or does something completely stupid or is humiliated and I just can't take it*
"Noooooo!"
It is a vicious, vicious cycle.
2. You finish a book or series and you feel like you just stepped back into the real world after spending your adolescence in Narnia.
You're so confused because you just experienced everything and every emotion ever but nobody else even knows or cares.
An actual depiction of my 11-year-old self in 2007 after finishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
Did Voldemort not just get defeated by Harry? Did no one else see that? No? Just me? Okay then.
3. You check up on your favorite authors to make sure they're still breathing and writing sequels and new things for you to become obsessed with.
Authors are basically the parents of your favorite things in the world. They birthed these stories to life, so naturally you want to become familiar with those witty, sharp minds. You look up facts about their lives and their writing process. You do research on their characters and how they came up with them. You find out what other books they've written and most importantly you keep a close eye on that sequel that they are currently writing that you need in your hands right this second.
Unfortunately, every once in a blue moon I still scroll through Stephenie Meyer's website out of sheer habit because my tween self won't let "Twilight" go.
*sigh*
4. When your favorite series has ended and you're just left looking at the book jacket you threw on the floor wondering why? Why can't there be more?
*me after I finished "Kindred" by Octavia Butler*
There is no way to accurately describe this feeling unless you've felt it. It's like you became a part of a family and you struggled and went through hell with that family only to wake up the next day having a shrink tell you that you just imagined everything and you've been in a comma the past few years. It kind of feels like abruptly being ripped away from reality and sat in some alternate universe where people are speaking with their toes and telling you that this is where you belong. Sometimes you just wish a story could go on forever, and you'd happily read every single page.
5. When a book subsequently ruins your life and everyone tells you that it's just a book, except it's not and they don't know anything!
You just walk around feeling sad, and you can't be happy because this book has been your whole life for the past however many days it took you to read it, and now something terrible has happened or someone died in the book and you just are inconsolable, and no one can relate to you unless they've read that book, too.
6.Cliffhangers
Sometimes the cliff hangers get resolved years later after the next book finally comes out, and sometimes authors are a special brand of cruel and leave you with cliffhangers that will never be resolved because the novel was a stand alone or it was the end of a series.
7. When you tell yourself you'll only read one more page or one more chapter before bed, and next thing you know it you're 100 pages deeper and something is burning your eyes and that something is the sun.
8. You pick up so much vocabulary and you actually start to use it in actual conversation with actual people, and they either think you're a snob or you're crazy.
9. When you see a connection to one of your favorite books or characters and no one else is feeling the same bliss and excitement that you are.
It's just you in this excited little bubble, and everyone else is just looking at you like you're about to poop yourself when really you're just trying to keep from screaming aloud. And if by chance you're with someone who actually understands the reference, you two fall into an abyss of nostalgia and excessive fan-talk.
10. You invite others into the wonderful world of loving and hating books, and you don't feel bad at all.
*finishes "My Sister's Keeper"*
"Hey Monica this is an amazing book! You should read it."
*watches as she feels all the feelings that you felt*
