My Twitter
pals recently surprised and delighted me when
I posted this question: “You know you’re in book love when ... ” Here are
some of the responses:
“you want to read aloud to whoever will listen!”–twitter.com/hchybinski
“…you recommend it to everyone even strangers.”–Sara Anderson @DIYSara
“…you stay up all night to finish in one sitting with no concern about how hard it will be to get through work the next day.”–Ridge Walker @ridgewalker
“…you read your friend's birthday present b4 he gets it.”–@rufalena
…you think the only thing better than going to sleep with a good book…is with a man who's just read one.”–Molly Block @mollyblock
Now
I’d like to cast this book-love net wider, to readers of this Well-Read
Life blog, and offer Levenger prizes for the most captivating
completions to that sentence.
Book love defined
Just to make sure we're all on the same page, I describe book love as that feeling you get when you can’t wait to get back to your book. As I describe in my Little Guide, book love is a lot like romantic love. It’s a feeling, while you’re
going about your workaday duties, of being beckoned by your book so the
two of you can be together again. That’s a very good feeling.
You’ve been in book love before, or else you wouldn’t be reading this. But are you in book love at this very moment?
Be honest now—how frequently are you reading a book you can’t wait to get back to?
If
you answer "all the time" my hat’s off to you, and I ask you to please
pass on some of your techniques to readers here. If you answer is "not as
often as I'd like" then perhaps you can learn with the rest of us how
to get more captivating books in our lives.
I’d always like to
be in book love because, for me, it means I’m learning. Whether I’m
reading fiction, history, biography, science or whatever, I want to be
drinking from that fountain of learning for the rest of my days. For
me, learning is the ultimate luxury.
So in this spirit, I ask
you, dear reader, to complete the sentence.
Fair warning: we may use your answer for various shameless-commerce
purposes at Levenger. Give us your full name so we can credit you (with honor, not money).
Ready to fall in love again? I’d
love to get your comments.