Women Who Love Books Too Much
by
Lauren Roberts
Consuming Desires is the title of one of the books in my library, but it might also be said to be the underlying factor in my obsession with books and reading. Some people—non-bibliophiles, say—might call my urge to own more books than I can read A Matter of Choice, but anyone with A Passion for Books can tell you it’s more than just A Feeling for Books; it’s probably A Gentle Madness or in desperate cases, Biblioholism. I mean, even Casanova Was a Book Lover. I’ve found that when Living With Books (and a significant other) it helps if the other possesses Fortitude and Patience, and doesn’t view books as A Necessary Evil. All bibliophiles need someone like that because there are So Many Books out there. Four thousand per week, actually, are published, though perhaps half of those are not destined for the reading public I often find myself thinking that maybe I need to read Faster. And sometimes I do read that way, greedily gulping the words as if they might disappear at any moment. Other times, I savor almost every word, letting it linger in my mind for a moment before tasting the next one. Anna Karenina was one of the latter. It took me four weeks to finish reading it, and the experience of slowly savoring each rich page rich still resonates with me. During that time I often felt as if Tolstoy and I were companions on The Long March toward a Sun After Dark, that we gathered Impressions as another might gather wildflowers and that I found a Portrait of Myself in his words. That, to me, is Reading at its best.
If there is A Place on Earth that is Beyond Time for me, it is when I am Warm and Snug, and At Home With Books. I not only love reading books, but Going Shopping for them—this, from someone who hates every other form of shopping and will do damn near anything to avoid it—smelling them, touching them, finding room for them on overcrowded shelves. Other times, I’ll admit, they can be Guilty Pleasures as when I bring home one or several new volumes to add to my already threateningly high TBR stack. It’s at times like this that my significant other can occasionally turn into The Snarling Citizen, and when that happens I begin to think that Cats Are Better Than Men.
Though I read anywhere and everywhere, Reading in Bed is my favorite time and place. In an earlier essay, I detailed that experience and my rituals before settling in. There is always An Open Book beside the nightstand, which acts as a reminder of How Reading Changed My Life, and of how it changes many lives.
The post office I frequent has a homeless man who has been hanging around for at least five years. Every day he sits in the same spot on the ground adjacent to the sidewalk and with his back to the wall. He is in his late fifties, bearded, invariably dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt and appears to be healthy and strong. Though he has the usual “Will work for food” sign propped beside him, he says nothing unless he is spoken to, for he is busy reading. No matter the time or day I go, he is there, a paperback book propped on his legs, his face bent down, engrossed. I suspect he buys these at the local thrift store, but I am not sure. I’ve not yet stopped to talk with him, but I feel at least this small kinship of one reader to another. And I wonder, is he among The Possessed too?
I think so. I’d guess he and I have both been Ruined by Reading. We may have little else in common, but we do have that. Good books, you see, paint The World in Color with words. It matters not that my choice of reading is often nonfiction or that his seem to be thrillers and mysteries. It matters not that his world is of the outdoors and of wondering where he will eat his next meal or that mine is filled with work deadlines. Our reading brings us together in a sense because it is, after all, a Journey into Vanishing Worlds, a world of Revelations, A World of Ideas, a world that might even be Better Than Sex.
What can I say besides It’s My World and Welcome to It?
Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines have reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, 750 bookmarks and nearly 1,000 books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She can be reached at
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