5 Signs You Might Be Addicted To Books

1st Sign You Have A Book Addiction: Never ending reading pile

When your own ‘To Read’ pile always has three to five books waiting to be read. Despite this, when you see a book you want to read you go ahead a buy it. I know that I am always finding more books to read and it seems as though my ‘To Read’ pile has never gone below three (maybe two if I run into a lull of books being released). When we go out and I find a book I want to read, my husband has reminded me on multiple occasions that I have books at home to finish. I tend to respond with an of course, but this is for after I finish those.

I know have a cubby for all the books I have that I need to still read. I am usually pretty good at cycling through them. That way no book is sitting on the shelf for too long. But since creating this little shelf, I have never had it empty. I get quite happy knowing that I have a list of books sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. I mostly get happy because I know that I can always have a new story and it practically at my finger tips.

2nd Sign You Are Hooked On Books: Books are easy to find in stores

When you go into a store and without thinking about it you slowly make your way back to the book section. Then, once you realize what you are doing you try to be a subtle as you can to those you went shopping with. It is almost like your feet know where you really want to go and it isn’t to go looking at the clothes or the makeup but the books. I know the number one store I think about this happening in is Target.

When I go to Target with others, our intent is generally clothes shopping or walking around the home decorations. But I, unintentionally, lead us towards the back part of the building where they keep the books and electronics. Even though we start by looking at the games and the head phones, I tend to get farther ahead of them. Then I am getting an aisle ahead of them. Finally, I just cave and the slow waltzing I’ve been doing throughout the store is forgotten. I head directly to the bookshelves and spend the remaining time they allow me going up and down the brand new books.

3rd Sign You Are Crazy About Books: Picking them up makes you happy

When you pick up a physical book, one of the first things you do is flip through the entire thing. As soon as I am done reading the back and looking all over the cover, I open the book and speed flip through the pages. Not reading any of them, but the feel of how many pages are there and waiting to be read through is amazing. It is almost like I am preparing myself for the challenge of reading the book. Or if it is an old book and you carefully bring it to your face and smell it. Of course you try to do this without drawing attention to yourself because smelling books – to those not addicted – seems like a weird thing to do. There is nothing like that true smell of a book. The deep scent of the paper and ink and wood (or leather depending on how it was bound) that gives you a small hit of euphoria because it is such a pure smell. Nothing like it in the world. If someone was able to candle that scent that would be amazing!

4th Sign You Are Dependent On Books: Protects the books like a phone

When you put the same amount of care into protecting your books as you would your phone or computer. The books to you are worth just as much disregarding the true price tag on the items in discussion. These books become your own babies, especially while you are reading them. You go out at start to buy book pouches just to protect them. Or bags large enough to fit inside without damaging the pages or cover. I make sure that I take off any dust covers that come on the book and put those up on the bookshelves straight away. Then I do a once over on the uncovered book before I start to read. If I plan on taking the book anywhere, I practically empty my purse in order to put the book in there. I don’t want anything to possibly ruin the pages, whether that be by a stray pen, a notching done to the cover by a bunt object, or anything else that might cause damage. I recently got a book pouch that I can put my books into if I cannot put them into my bags. If you don’t have one and you are tried of emptying out your bags for your books, a book pouch is pretty awesome!

5th Sign You Are Fixated On Books: Always at the tip of your finger

You are hardly ever outside of your house without a book close at hand. It doesn’t have to be a physical book both ebook and an audio book count. If anything you are more proud of the digital versions because you can keep more than one or two on you at a time. And they don’t take up any extra space (other than on your phone). I always pride myself on having a book close by. You never know when you might get an opportunity to read a page here or there.

On vacations, I tend to bring a lot of books because I never know what I will want to read or how many I might finish. My husband finally said that I should start getting more ebooks so I would stop taking up so much space with my books. So my library of ebooks has definitely grown. And as of last July, I have invested in Audible and I am in love with it! Being that I would much rather have the physical book in hand instead of owning an e-version of if, I was hesitant about Audible. But, since starting Audible, I am able to finish just as many if not a few more books by listening to them than I do reading them. I get to listen to the stories while I am working or driving and before I know it I am on to the next one. So I am always a tap away from a book! No matter the way I read my books, I would feel like I’m missing something if I didn’t have a book near me.