As most bookworms will tell you, there’s so much to love about books. Reading them, collecting them, sniffing them. There’s nothing like being in a quiet, cosy room, surrounded by shelves and shelves of books as you immerse yourself in a good story. Or experiencing the joy of collecting all the books in your favourite fantasy series, taking a large whiff of new book smell and getting creative as you stack your latest haul on your shelves. But as blissful as all that sounds, being a bookworm also has its challenges. Here are 7 Bookish Problems Every Bookworm Can Understand.
Having a collection of bookmarkers but never using them
We get so excited about starting that new book we’ve been putting off for ages, or one we’ve been highly anticipating because of its glowing reviews, that we forget to make sure we have a bookmarker on hand to mark the page we’re on when we need to take a break. Over the years, I’ve accumulated a large stash of bookmarkers, but I rarely remember to stick one in the back pages of my next read before starting it, so that oftentimes, I’ll end up using any item in the immediate vicinity as a not-so-adequate alternative or worse, dog-earring the page.
Wanting to put books by the same author together on your shelves but they are all different heights.
Some bookworms can be very particular about how they want their bookshelves to be arranged. Bookshelf organisation is a whole activity and hobby in and of itself. Some of us prefer to arrange our books by colour, some by genre and for some, alphabetically by title or by author is the way to go. I employ a range of these systems in my bookshelf organisation. Each shelf is categorized into genres and within each genre, I try to coordinate books of the same colour, height and author name, but as you would imagine, given that books come in all different shapes and sizes, conflicts sometimes arise.
Sticker remains
We love the excitement of going to a bookshop and seeing the book we want to buy with a Buy one get the other half price sticker or other similar promotional stickers on the cover, because it means that we have an excuse to buy more books, and who doesn’t love that? The problem comes when trying to remove the sticker. Sometimes they come off easily, much to our relief (most of us like keeping our books in pristine condition). But other times they don’t, leaving unsightly, sticky remains that can be a headache to remove. It’s such an issue that so many sticker hacks and other resources have been shared in online book spaces to help bookworms with this pesky problem. One such resource was published by Hooked To Books and you can read it here.
Always taking a book with you just in case and then never reading it
Guilty as charged! This has my name written all over it, so much so, I had to use my own pictures. I rarely go out without taking a book with me, just in case, sometimes even turning back to grab my latest read at the point when I’m about to leave. Though bookworms each have their own preferred place for reading; on the sofa, in bed, in a library, coffee shop or their own custom-made reading nook, we’ll generally read wherever possible, even if it means squeezing in a page or two on the train. But sometimes our good intentions get crowded in by other preoccupations, leaving little room left for reading.
Deciding what to read next
If you’re a bookworm, the chances are you have a huge pile of unread books; physical, electronic or audio. With so much variety available as to what we will read next; an epic fantasy, a steamy romance, a thought-provoking non-fiction text or even a nail-biting thriller, it can often lead to choice paralysis or as I like to call it, TBR (To-Be-Read) paralysis. Most bookworms are mood readers, meaning that they will often choose to read whatever takes their fancy, but when you don’t know exactly what you fancy, it usually leads you down the rabbit hole of, decisions decisions…
When you’re collecting a series and the cover editions change
I love collecting book series, sagas, duologies and trilogies, as do most bookworms. We’ll even splash out on special collector’s editions if we really enjoyed the story. But what makes finding a book you love even better is experiencing that high of anticipation when you learn that a sequel is going to be released and more books after that. If a story is good enough, we’ll eagerly keep reading because we want to continue following our favourite characters on their journey. The only downside is when publishers release new editions with cover style changes that look incongruous on our shelves. For example, this was the case with the Witcher saga by Andrzej Sapkowski, in light of its recent Netflix adaptation. On the plus side, at least the newer editions are the same height as the others, saving me from even more bookshelf organisation woes.
Randomly staring longingly at your shelves
Okay, I’ll admit, this one isn’t really a problem per se, not unless you’re so in love with your shelves that you’ll spend hours staring at them in admiration. For most of us, it’s usually a case of stopping occasionally to have a quick ogle here, make a slight adjustment there and then continue with our day. As we mentioned earlier, bookshelf organisation is a satisfying pastime in itself and many bookworms will tell you that they like to arrange their books in a particular way, such as by colour, genre, etc. Additionally, because we take so much pride in the arrangement of our books and their presentation, we also like to embellish our shelves, for added homely cosiness, with bookish ornaments, merchandise, candles, plants and lighting. Bookshelf decor is a form of relaxation and an art so we can’t help but to idly stare at our shelves from time to time and admire our work.
Being an avid reader who prefers the company of books over humans has a lot of downsides, many of which have not been covered in this post, but as bookworms, we love the joy of reading and all things bookish so much, it makes all the not-so-fun bits worth it. What is one bookish problem that you always face?
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