There are people who hate reading, there are people who love reading and then there are those who would absolutely die of boredom and depression without books in their lives. I consider myself to be in that last category, and let me tell you, it's not an easy life to live. You've got to have a thick spine, a hard cover and the ability to put up with horribly cheesy puns. Let me introduce you to the mind of the infamous bookworm.
Buying a New Book
This is probably the most dangerous and time-consuming process in a bookworm's life. There are many life-altering choices to be made. What books do you buy? How many books do you buy at this time? Stand-alone or series? If a series, do you buy the entire series or just the first one? Do you want contemporary or fantasy or sci-fi or a mix? Really, you end up wandering through the same aisles and staring at the same books over and over again until you force yourself towards the checkout counter. And even then, you wonder if you made the right decision.
Getting to Know the Characters
Once you actually start reading your book, you have to settle into a new group of characters to follow. Yet no matter how you feel about the characters, your reactions are always a little extreme. When you like a character, you really, really love them. I'm talking a huge smile whenever their name is mentioned, cheering when they do something sassy or awesome and basically thinking they are the greatest fictional being in all of book history. However, when it comes to characters you don't like (even if it's just a little bit), they are practically dead to you. It is no unusual or wrong to start yelling at your least favorite characters to just die in a hole and leave your precious babies (aka the characters you do like) alone.
Shipping
This term is short for relationshipping. In short, it means you want to force two characters into a relationship because they are meant to be together forever and live out the rest of their bliss-filled days in each other's presence, and they can't possibly love anyone else because they are absolutely perfect for each other! The amount of love (recognized or not by the characters themselves) between them is so powerful and adorable that it is impossible not to squeal or jump up and down if they are simply put in the same room. And if they actually do end up together in the book, all hell breaks loose.
Death of a Character
Speaking of hell, the death of a beloved character is the worst pain someone can experience whilst reading, far more excruciating than a paper cut. The best description for reading the death of a favorite character is that the author tears into your chest, pulls out your heart, and then stomps on it repeatedly as hard as they can until you are left as a sobering, shaking mess on the floor.
On the other hand, if a character you don't like dies, you can practically hear angels begin the Hallelujah Chorus overhead.
Finishing a Book
After all of that is through, you come to the close of the book and are left with the heartbroken feeling of having lost something incredibly dear. If it's a series, you can simply move on to the next book. But if the series is done or you were reading a stand-alone, you may experience the dread of the book slump, a miserable time when you are so caught up in the world of the book you finished that you can't seem to bring yourself to read anything else. But no matter how broken your heart feels, you must put the book onto your shelf and begin the entire process again.
