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What do you love about books?


Athena

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I've been going through the pieces I wrote for my 'Book about Books' that I stopped working on a while ago when I got too tired. I worked on a piece on what I love about books and what they mean to me, and this got me thinking. What are some of the things you love about books? This can be from any particular story element to the way a book feels in your hands.

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Yes, definitely getting lost in a good book.  I love the fact that my imagination just takes over - no location is ever the same twice in my head, and even with scant description of a property or place I still have amazing images of what things look like!  It's amazing how clever the human brain is.

 

I also love books that teach me stuff - either within their pages, or those that make me head straight to Google to find out more about people/places/subjects...

 

I love the feeling of a brand new book, knowing nobody else has read it - even though I buy 99% of my books second hand so that doesn't often happen!  :giggle2:

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I love the thrill of discovering something new in the pages of every single book that I read - something new about myself, or perhaps about the way that others think, or something new about whatever place the book I am reading is set. I love discovering new authors and new genres and of course I love being lost in a good story whether that be fiction or non fiction. I love the way that the books I read stretch my mind and my own boundaries, sometimes challenging my own views and perceptions. I love meeting a stranger on a train or in a coffee shop and on discovering that they are reading something I have read, discussing that book with them. I love introducing books to my friends both on and offline and the recommendations that I receive back. I love the fact that as long as there are books in the world, I will never be short of something to do.

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I also love books that teach me stuff - either within their pages, or those that make me head straight to Google to find out more about people/places/subjects...

 

Yes, I love this too, I usually read by my computer just for this reason.  The books I've been reading lately, I have needed Google badly!

I love being transported to different lives and worlds, even with fiction.  I love the twists and turns in books and I LOVE when I can't figure out the end, but that usually happens as I don't like to figure it out, I like to be surprised (like with the Allegiant).  Oh- and if I can find one, I like to get emotional during a read (like with Catherine Ryan Hyde- especially Don't Let Me Go), which is hard because I am not that emotional of a person!

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Very interesting replies! There are lots of different things to love about books.

 

There are many things I love about books. Here is what I wrote a couple of months ago:

 

"Ever since I could read, books have been important to me. My love for reading quickly grew and I was reading almost every day. Since a few years ago I've become more and more 'obsessive' about my books. I partially attribute this to stress, when I'm stress it helps me to try and focus on something fun, such as my books and reading. University was quite stressful, and now that I'm graduated I'm unfortunately still somewhat stressed.

 

But it's not just stress of course. My book collection has become increasingly important to me. I've always loved reading but I've grown into really enjoying looking at my collection, holding a book, organising my shelves. I'm proud of my collection, even if I haven't read a lot of it yet. I enjoy looking forward to reading the books I haven't read yet, and I enjoy looking forward to rereading the books I have read.

 

No matter my mood, I always enjoy looking at my books. If I'm sad, looking at them can often cheer me up. If I'm tired and frustrated because of this, looking at my books calms me down. Books are a big part of my life. They're my number one hobby, my number one thing to do.

 

I don't know if I am explaining this well. It's difficult to write down just how much books mean to me, I feel words cannot do my feelings justice.

 

My books are there for me.

 

I like making piles of 'TBR-soon' books. I like making photos of my book cases. I like going through my books, organising them, finding books I'd forgot about. I like looking at my books' covers and spines.

 

Books tell something about the person who reads them, who owns them. Books have been my friends in times where I had none, or very few friends. It's so nice to read about all these different adventures the characters go on in my books. For a while I can forget about my own problems and enjoy reading about someone else's. Information books are different of course, there I get to learn about new things or read about things I already knew but perhaps forgot about (or my knowledge gets reassured). I read because of many different reasons, escape and learning are two of them. Both non-fiction and fiction books teach me a lot, and have taught me a lot in the past. Much of my knowledge of this world comes from books. I knew the parts of a cell before I was told in biology class, I had read about them a few years prior to the lesson when I was yet to become a teenager. I've always been curious about the world and how it works. Stories tell me a lot about people and I want(ed) to learn about people and their social rules. By now I know a lot already, but books continue to teach me about everything.

 

I've read that if you read fictional books, compared with people who don't, your brain is better at certain things, because you imagine the stories in your read. There are people who'd rather watch the movie than read the book, because they like seeing it acted out on the screen rather than imagining it in their heads. Personally I rather like imagining stories in my head. With some scenes I have difficulty, particularly when there's a lot of action involved and I'm not sure how it all works spationally. But that's okay, because I do enjoy those stories, even if I can't imagine everything 100%.

 

Reading is something I can do even when I'm a bit tired. It doesn't work that way for some other people. They find watching something on TV tires them out less than reading a book. For me reading words and sentences is a lot easier on my brain than processing both visual and audio input from a TV screen. So reading has always been my friend, there have been many times where I was too tired to watch something or to play a game, or to socialise. At these times, but while I'm not too tired for reading just yet, I really enjoy reading a book.

 

This raises one important question though. While I enjoy watching something or playing a game, I wouldn't want to do these things all day long if I could (though if I could, I'd certainly love to try to do so, just to experience what that's like). I could perhaps not read all day long these days, because it costs too much energy to do it all day long, so I need to rest for a while. As I said, reading is my number one hobby and I value it higher than watching a film or a TV series, or than playing a game. I do enjoy watching a film or TV series I like, and playing certain games.

 

I love being in a library or a book shop. I love watching other people's collection of books and how they've organised it."

 

The piece could certainly do with some more editing, but I thought I'd share it. I love so many things about books, there are more things I could add to it.

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I like it!  Did you write in Dutch and then Translate or did you write in English?  In any case, I think you organized it well and stuck to the topic with supporting claims throughout. 

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To feel like I'm taking part of an exciting happening, the story. Reading is living more than one life. The imagination takes over, so you can be part of the story, experience what happens, hanging out with new people. 

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I like it!  Did you write in Dutch and then Translate or did you write in English?  In any case, I think you organized it well and stuck to the topic with supporting claims throughout.

Thanks Anna :)! I wrote it in English straight away.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Neat idea for a thread, Gaia!  Your summation is excellent, and I agree. :)

 

I love learning how people that I'd never come in contact with think.  Why they react the way they do to situations, and the repercussions of those reactions.  How do they live with it, how do they manage.  I love learning about civilizations that I'd never have a chance to experience, whether it's because they are ancient, or far away. 

IOW, Why?

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I love the smell of a book. I love the crackle of the spine when you open it, especially for the first time. No matter how stressed out I am from the day, I can always escape into a good, or even an indifferent, book. I always learn something new from any book I read, and that usually throws up other questions in my mind, so I end up reading about something completely unrelated on the internet while mid-chapter. I ilke that conversations can just start up with random strangers because they've caught you reading a book they read last month.

 

And, while I might not get the first two from them - e-books are just as wonderful as well!

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