If you are a lover of books, then you know that there are many things that you enjoy that non-readers will not understand. Ask any bibliophile and they probably can relate to at least five of the things on this list. Bibliophiles are almost like their own species; they share certain traits and traditions. Book-lovers have habits that can sometimes appear strange to outsiders, but we're really just a misunderstood people who refuse to admit that we have an overly intense love of reading.
1. Smelling books
Okay, I know this sounds weird, but books (especially old books) have this smell. And it's amazing. It smells like history and old paper. There's something about it that makes you want to read every book ever.
2. Creating an absurdly long to-be-read list
And then buying new books and having to add those to the list. It is ever growing and you probably will never get through all of them.
3. Judging people based on their books (or lack thereof)
Yes, judging people based on their books is a thing. We can't help it, it's second nature. The presence of books in someone's house or apartment or dorm is one of the first things I notice. If you have none, I immediately question your sanity.
4. Packing more books than clothes when going on vacation
And having to worry about going over the weight limit of the airline because books are really freaking heavy. But you never know how fast you're going to be able to read books and on vacation you have plenty of free time so you have to bring a lot. Just in case.
5. Giving overly detailed summaries when asked about what you're reading
I will either only tell you the title or give you the entire story. There's no in-between. And if I do give you a summary, it will likely take me at least 10 minutes and will rarely be objective. You will know my opinion on every character and the plot by the end of it.
6. Feeling "out of it" and not knowing what to do once you finish a book
Sometimes I will literally just sit there and stare at a wall after finishing a book. It was either so good that I cannot believe I finished it and there's no more left to read. Or it was so devastating that I am actually emotionally drained from reading it. I call it the post-book haze.
7. Reading multiple books at once
It's not as difficult to keep all the plots straight as people think it is. Usually they are all very different stories and reading more than one book at once can be fascinating. This is especially common when reading a book for school as well as wanting to read a book for your own personal enjoyment.
8. Pulling an all-nighter to finish a book because you just can't wait until the morning
The amount of times you say "just one more chapter" is absurd and eventually you realize that it's morning. Trying to wait until the morning to finish a book would most likely just result in not being able to sleep because you keep thinking about the story. It just makes more sense to stay up and finish it.
9. Spending hours on hours in a bookstore or library
Leave me at Barnes & Noble and come back like four hours later and I will not be remotely bored. The best is Strand in NYC though. Three stories of books plus dozens of shelves outside with books for $5 or less. I could spend days in that place.
10. Being very particular about how your bookshelf is organized
There's hundreds of ways people can organize their book shelves. Alphabetical by title, alphabetical by author, in color order, in the order that you bought them or read them, etc. But what stays the same amongst every reader is that they are super particular about how their shelves are arranged. If you move something out of place, they will know and will probably be upset about it.
11. Having ridiculously strong feelings about book to movie adaptations
About 95% of the time, the book is better than the movie or TV series. Books have the ability to provide more detail and give a fuller story. Rarely is a book properly converted into a film. For example, while the Harry Potter movies are amazing, can you imagine if we had gotten a full TV series of it? Each book a season, each chapter an episode, we would have hours of Harry Potter footage and there would be much more attention to detail.
12. Creating playlists for specific books (or just reading in general)
Or even better, when the book has a playlist for it already made on Spotify and you can just listen to it as you read. It makes the book feel even more real and allows you to fully immerse yourself in the story.
13. Reading like 10 books in a week or not reading for 13498 years
This divide is especially true with the change from the school year to the summer. During school, people rarely have time to read books when they want to and when they do it is few and far between. The summer, however, is a book-lover's dream. Endless time to just read and read. You can devour books every day.
14. Getting excited about going to used bookstores
There's something incredible about used, old books. There is a story on top of the story already written in the pages. There is also the tale of the person who owned that book before or of the time period in which it was originally printed. The people who tend to own used bookshops tend to be interesting characters themselves as well.
15. Lending out books like you're a library...
There's nothing bibliophiles love more than being asked for book recommendations. It is asking us to tell you about our favorite thing and you wanting our opinion is also something to be admired. We will give you piles of books from our shelves without question if we think you will like them.
16. ...but being irrationally angry if the books don't get returned to you
Hell hath no fury like a book-lover scorned. If you do not give the books back to use, or give them back damaged, we will be so mad. And it definitely is irrational, but we don't care, it's like if we were to take your favorite pair of shoes and dip them in mud and dirt and then give them back.
17. Asking for books for literally every holiday and birthday
Yes, I want books for my birthday and Christmas. I know how boring that sounds, but that's what I want. You don't question people when they ask for video games, are books really so different?
18. Having a book (or two) with you at all times
It's rare that I leave the house without a book, there's always one in my backpack or my car. And if I don't have the ability to physically carry one, I can access one on my phone. You always need to have something to do just in case you get bored or have to wait somewhere for something.
19. Illegally reading books online when you can't wait long enough to buy it or don't have enough money to
It's like watching pirated movies online except you read books that were illegally uploaded to websites. It is quite possibly the most nerdy thing in the world. It's amazing for when you need to read the sequel to a book right now and can't wait to get to a store and buy it yourself.
20. Feeling like you want to implode when you realize that it is impossible for you to read every book
There's no way to do it; it would take approximately 60,000 years to read every book cataloged in the library of congress and that is not counting books that will continue to be published and undocumented books. It pains readers everywhere that they cannot enjoy the works of all the great authors to ever live, but we still get to enjoy a good couple hundreds of books, and that is good enough for us.
