If you've known your bibliophile friend for years, you're already familiar with her habits, but if you've just begun a friendship with a bibliophile, don't be alarmed at her overflowing bookshelf or her ability to quote Shakespeare in any situation. Once you get to know her, a bibliophile could be your new best friend. You might even become a bibliophile yourself.
When you go to the mall, a stop at the bookstore is mandatory. Her impulse buys will include books, books, and more books, hence the name "bibliophile." She'll gush over the classics, quoting her favorite lines. She'll recommend her favorite young adult author to you, and pick up his newest novel. She'll reminisce about the books, plays, and poems she read in a literature class, and talk about F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tennessee Williams, and Emily Dickinson like they're her best friends. She'll tell you stories about her favorite English professor (bonus points if she claimed he or she changed her life.) While her other friends leave the mall with clothes or Bath & Body Works, the bibliophile friend will leave with three paperbacks and a monogram bookmark. Don't be alarmed if she buys a book she already read because she wants a copy of her own. If you read between the lines (See what I did there?) you'll always know what to get her for her birthday. If you can't remember which book is next on her ever growing reading list, you can't go wrong with a gift card or a bookmark with a witty saying.
If you take your bibliophile friend to a movie, chances are she's already read the book it's based on. Even though she'll squeal when she sees her favorite part on the big screen and cry when her favorite character dies, she'll go to her grave claiming book was better than the movie. If you aren't a reader yourself, you'll just smile and take her word for it.
You'll wonder how she finds the time to read all those books, but you'll soon find her reading everywhere. She'll always have a novel on her in her spare time, before class, at the coffee shop, on a road trip, and before she falls asleep. She'll quote books even if she knows you won't get the reference because the words are just so beautiful and meaningful. She'll discuss characters as if they're real people. You'll realize just how much an arrangement of twenty-six letters can mean to someone. Even though the worlds and the characters who inhabit them disappear as soon as the book closes, those worlds and those characters mean more to a bibliophile than you can fathom. Most of all, if your bibliophile friend recommends a book to you, she's trying to let you into her world of words. It would mean the world to her if you read it and discussed it with her.
Now that you read everything you need to know about your bibliophile friend, I'll leave you with a word of warning. Proceed with caution when you ask about the novel she's currently reading in case she's mourning the loss of her favorite character.
