Bibliophilia

Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. A bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads books.

From a very young age, I loved reading and books. There is a special kind of magic that takes you over when your fingers turn the pages. Similar to vinyl, each book has history and character; they become a part of you when you read them. 

I have fond, vivid memories of books in my life: a book of illustrated fairy tales that my Mom read to me before bed, a collection of World Book encyclopedias that I’d pour over for information (the arts was my favorite), my yearly reading of my favorite The Night Before Christmas tree ornament, and the tattered, marked-up copy of The American Night that was perpetually in my bookbag through highschool. 

To make books better, they come from bookshops, places where many happy hours were spent. I’ve always especially loved used books, gravitating towards the ones with emotional inscriptions and little snippets of papers and movie tickets that were left behind from other reader’s lives. I’ve never been one to go to a bookshop with a purpose; I like to peruse the shelves and see what speaks to me. On my travels, I’ve found myself drawn to bookstores with history, like The Strand (New York City) and Shakespeare and Company (Paris). 

To be a writer is to be a reader.