Fangirl Fridays – Books!!

My name is Merit and I am a Bookaholic: a person who has a strong passion for and desire to read all the time.

Addiction  –  an abnormally strong craving.

Craving      –  an intense desire for some particular thing.

Books         –  a very long definition, here goes...

Anthony Browne

I crave books. I love reading, all the time, anywhere and everywhere. While I read, the real world disappears, I’m tumbling through the rabbit hole pages, submerged in the plot, and I forget everything else... I am thrilled to find myself in new and different worlds. I like the ability to explore new possibilities, to be someone else: a kickass heroine or a dashing young English lady, a mysteries magician or a notorious witch. How else can I travel back in time to find a maddeningly strong and sexy “king of men” to live with, to love forever?

That doesn’t mean I don’t have a life, I mean a “real life”, but... but...

Do you have a book addiction, too? Click through to read about more of my symptoms.

You, too, might have experienced this scenario more than once: saying to yourself, just one more chapter, only one more, and the next time you stop reading, dawn is almost breaking while you have to make haste to prepare for work.

I have to thank the inventors of e-books. If not for them, I wouldn’t have room to live in my house. It’s full of books. There are no places for new book shelves or books. I even have books in my clothes dresser.

That reminds me of one time when I hid away in my closet with a novel. I had a few hours to enjoy my reading, enough time until dinner... When I lifted my eyes from the page, the clock showed 5 minutes (!) until dinner time. I could not believe my eyes, confused and a little panicked, wondering where did time go? I hadn’t started dinner yet and my family would starve… I could have used a few magic tricks then. My family knows not to disturb me while I read, unless there is an emergency in the vicinity.

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.”
~ J.D. Salinger

Books enrich our lives. There is nothing like a good book, one that transports me to another place and time, one that enthralls me so much I can’t put it down.

Good stories refine the mind and ease the soul. Just let me sit down with a good book and a cup of coffee or tea, and all is well and content. When I say “let me sit down”, I also mean stand or lie down, it really doesn’t matter. I read everywhere: at home, on a bus, at work (only when it’s quiet, of course), on a plane, or on the beach. While others enjoy swimming, I enjoy reading in the shade.

It really does not matter if my book is historical romance, murder mystery, paranormal, bodice ripper, YA, dystopian saga, down ‘n’ dirty... you name it, and I read it.

“I love books, by the way, way more than movies. Movies tell you what to think. A good book lets you choose a few thoughts for yourself.”
~ Darkfever, Karen Marie Moning

Believe me when I say that reading expands the mind and imagination more than magic mushrooms. Good books challenge our intellect, increase our knowledge, and broaden our horizons. Reading stories make us think. Very healthy habit, isn’t it? Books will help us grow a larger and more precise vocabulary and a greater knowledge of the world around us. When an author writes a plot that I cannot predict or pick apart, or plays with my mind like a puppeteer — while I am fully aware and unable to resist — it’s the best feeling in the world. Someone bothered to trick me in such a clever way, making me feel the story on more than one level. It is an awareness-enhancing experience, really.

“Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly, they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.”
~ Aldous Huxley

There have been stories that made me stop breathing, made me laugh and cry, made me ache all over, or lit up my heart. Sometimes I think about a book that has gotten under my skin, for days replaying scenes over and over, trying to get a new perspective or better understanding. Or talk about it with a fellow reader, comparing notes or laughing silly about it.

There are stories that stay with me always, not only because they are on my Kindle, which is attached to me all the time, but because I can’t stop thinking about them. I can be (physically) at work, or with family or friends, but my mind is inside the Barrons Books and Baubles store, or up on Fraser’s Ridge...

I never seem to get enough books, I always want more. I have bookmarked a few blogs and sites that introduce free books every few hours, and I can’t stop myself from opening them whenever I find an alert for new books. I tell myself: “Today you will not open it. Don’t touch the screen! Don’t. Even. Look!!!! DO NOT!!!” But I can’t, I am not strong enough — as I told you before, I have an addiction... I open the page, click the book, and add another one to the heap. Yes, my TBR list is enormous…

I wish I had a time machine to sneak in a few extra reading hours.

One of the dangers of addiction is overdose. From time to time I get a reading overdose, and I feel choked, nauseous. I stop reading and can’t even look at my Kindle or book. It takes a day to recover — no more than that — and I am back in that magical zone where I can slip into different worlds and live different lives.

I am not sure my ramblings make any sense here, but it just goes to show that:

“Outside a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”
~ Groucho Marks

So dear readers, I wrote only “the tip of the iceberg” of my take on books and my addiction, but I feel like it’s too much already. Do you have this kind of “addiction”? How do you find enough time for reading in your “real life”?