Book-Crazy Woman

Am I actually a bookworm or a bibliophile. I’d say I am both. Of course, it began with being a bookworm because our parents introduced books to us (my siblings and I) at a very young age. Thankfully I didn’t quite get to being the nerdy kind, you know the ones who shut themselves up in their rooms, parents worrying if the kid is a super genius or simply smoking pot.
I am ashamed to say that when I was a kid not all of my books remained in the condition I received them in. Some of the binding came off, I used to dog ear the pages and some were torn in fights (I want to read it! It’s my book! Give it to me! Rip!). Some consolation those were the little picture books (not that I am making an excuse, but definitely not intellectual reading).
Our uncle once sent us this huge (when we were little the book really looked gigantic) Book of Fairy Tales which had Alladin and the Genie on the cover and came hardbound. Oh, the thrill of getting that book with lovely pictures inside. It’s now stored away in a box full of books at my Mum’s and though it seems a lot smaller now it’s a lovely book.
Also as kids, most birthday presents would be books, mostly encyclopaedias (now you know why I am so intelligent eh?) These gargantuan books were just spectacular and of course Mom would make sure we took good care of them. No dog-earing and no food around these books.
When we grew older summer holidays would be spent at the library, of course no one saw the value in buying a whole set of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy’s for a couple of ‘Teenage Investigator Crazy’ kids (Kavan (my bro) and I). So going to the library and borrowing books seemed like an inherent and almost scary quality in us. We would sometimes finish two books in a day and go and borrow more and sometimes the librarian in the public library would shoo us away and would tell us to return the next day only for more books.
The crazy book buying began when I started working. To start with I would scour the various book carts sold by vendors on the shopping street. And I must tell you I have found some old books in very good condition, one of them author-signed, some of them hardbound and for a bloody cheap price, obviously because no one else wanted them.
When I could afford it I’d go to bookstores (the fancy ones) and buy my books. Though, that doesn’t mean that I don’t visit stores which sell pre-owned books anymore. I love the look and smell of old books. London has a quite a few of them and when I’ve been there it’s been an absolute thrill. I can spend hours in bookstores, which is probably annoying for some people who want to just get done with the book shopping right away. If you want to buy books in a hurry, don’t take me along, I’ll never want to leave.
And yes, I am very very possessive about my books; if my family didn’t know better they would have packed me off to the loony bin. So it’s no surprise that I absolutely hate lending my books (and if any of you have actually been lent books by me, consider yourself very lucky). I’d rather buy you new books (haven’t done that yet, but you never know) than you lend you mine, what did I tell you about me being an absolute lunatic. And same goes for borrowing, I don’t borrow anymore, I just buy the book. This trait has developed over the past few years now and yes it is definitely eccentric behaviour; ‘Kav, can I borrow your book?’ ‘Err, umm, well, I don’t think so.’
Of course, my close friends do understand this perfectly and now they have just stopped asking. Some of the cheeky ones threaten to raid my bookshelf in India while I am in London and though I know that will not happen, my whole body twinges by just the thought of it. Now you must be thinking an appointment with a psychiatric should definitely be in order.
I wonder if my condition is rare, but then I am sure there is probably a small percentage of ‘Bibliophilic’ behaviour in you as well.
When I am buying books I prefer buying hardbacks than paperback because they look so gorgeous. Nowadays since so many books are being made into movies I refrain from buying the ‘Movie Picture’ cover and buy the original instead (though I have some with the picture cover, had no choice).
I always check my books for any fault, what if there are torn pages in them, or the cover is bent because some idiot could not put it back in the bookshelf right.
So given all that I have said above, We all know what the verdict is, don’t we? An eccentric, bordering on loony, bibliophile.