I love books. It comes with the territory of being a writer, I reckon.
My fondest childhood memories involve visits to our local library and afternoons spent curled up on the sofa or in my bedroom, devouring the pages of my beloved books. I even used to imagine I could be like Matilda from the famous Roald Dahl story book. She was my childhood heroine.
#AtoZChallenge: B is for Booklover
Books are visual. Books are tactile. Books have a unique smell that just makes you feel safe and exhilarated at the same time. They take you to foreign countries, alien landscapes, and they introduce you to people that you may never meet in real life due to circumstance and fate. I love the crisp, clear sound of a page when you turn it, and that crack of the spine when you open a book for the very first time. Yummy!
It is incredibly difficult for me to walk past a bookshop. I have to step inside, even just for five minutes, so that I can wander around and gaze lovingly at the contents of the shelves. My favourite bookshops are the second-hand ones, where you find dusty old stacks, piles of treasured paperbacks and hardbacks, and dimly lit, narrow corridors between the bookshelves. Bliss!
See you tomorrow, for the next letter in the #AtoZChallenge, and why not download my brand new short story, The Wolf and the Fairy: A Contemporary Adult Fairy Tale in the meantime.
Did you enjoy this article? Download your FREE copy of LGBT fantasy short story It’s Complicated (The Redcliffe Novels) and meet the werewolves of Cornwall, England. Click here.
SpookyMrsGreen 
Wonderful post. Bookstores are the greatest. I didn’t always think so. When I was a child, I hated to read. Luckily, I learned what I was missing. Ironically, it happened when I became a teacher and read children’s books with my students. Guess I was just slow growing up.
http://beverlystowemcclure.blogspot.com
You got there in the end! I suppose for children they can be a little boring at first. Thanks for stopping by, I will catch up later 🙂
I am also a lifelong book lover and proud of it. I remember going to the library as a kid and thinking how wonderful it was that there were so many stories to look forward to.
Blogging the #AtoZchallenge: http://www.kathleenvalentineblog.com/
Oh yes, the library is a haven! Thanks for stopping by.
Nicely done! I adore bookstores!
@simplymarquessa from
Simply Marquessa
Thanks! 🙂
I’ve always liked the fact that used bookstores have character. You can go into one and it will be homey, the person behind the counter might greet you like an old friend. Another will have a cat (or two) ready to jump into your lap. It’s just fantastic when you find one with that right blend of books and extras to give you that special tingle!
They certainly do! One of my favourite places to visit is Hay-on-Wye in Herefordshire, over here in England. That is a book town. They have loads of different kinds of bookshops, and they even have an outdoor ‘honesty’ bookshop. There are just rows of bookshelves out on display, with cats that come and lie in the sun while we browse. Bliss!
From a book lover to another … I loved your post. I too loved to go to the library each week and choose the book that would keep me company, though Roald Dahl became famous after my time – I was a Doctor Seuss fan when I was little and then fell in love with the Borrowers when I go older. Thanks for the link to your new story.
Oh yes, the Borrowers, I loved them! I wanted to be Arriety for a while after I read about her adventures… 😉
Me too … I really loved those stories!
for sure! I feel the same about books and reading. I am fairly young so I have a different Hero, but nevertheless, I had one myself.
All booklovers have their heroes, it comes with the territory! Thanks for stopping by. Would you care to share your hero with us? Maybe introduce us to some new books?
Hi there!
I’m stopping by from the #AtoZChallenge. I completely understand the whole love of books thing as I am a writer as well…;~)
I have two blogs in this challenge…my author blog at THE STORY CATCHER (www.donnalmartin.com) and my KICKS Kids Club blog (www.kickskidsclub.blogspot.com) . If you get a chance, check them out and good luck with the challenge!
Donna L Martin
Excellent, and thanks for stopping by! I will catch up with everyone on their blogs later. For now I have a slight distraction with my children off school for their Easter holidays… 😉
Some of my fondest childhood memories revolve around books too. 😀
And they are often some of the best memories too! 🙂
I am a book lover too and love to visit all those places you mentioned. Growing up we had no library and little access to books, so I love the availability of books now!
No library? I couldn’t imagine life without access to one! I suppose I have been very lucky, really. I have always lived within walking distance of a library, whether that be a council-run one in a town, or an academic one at school, college and university.
Ah yes, the booklover’s life is a hard one. The first book that I remember finding on my own, in someone else’s house, had an illustration of a scene from Sir Thomas Mallory’s Death of King Arthur. Not fully illustrated, a line drawing, orange ink, I think. I still recall the electric sense of touching the weapons, the shields. Up until then, it had all been simple. The Little Red Hen, that sort of thing. This was different. Magic. Then and now.