12 Things Only Bookworms Will Understand
PHOTO BY CINDY FAZZI
The word bookworm, dating back to 1592, refers to “a person unusually devoted to reading,” according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. It also means the larva of any wood-boring insect that feeds on paper in books. We avid readers are indeed a special kind of tribe!
If you feel misunderstood for being a bookworm, rest assured there are many of us who share these traits.
#1 We can’t live without books. Period. Books are as essential as three squares a day. Need we say more?
#2 When life gives you lemons, make lemonade…and read more books. The COVID-19 pandemic upended our lives with quarantines, state lockdowns, and sheltering in place. To make the best of the crisis, avid readers are using it to catch up with books they’ve always wanted to read. The pandemic is changing our reading behavior, according to reports.
#3 We don’t believe in reading breaks. We need a book or two to read every single day, year-round. Who needs a break? Bathroom and lunch breaks, yes, absolutely, but no reading breaks for bookworms!
#4 Time spent waiting for anything or anybody means extra reading time. We always have a book at hand, so it doesn’t matter whether we have to wait for 15 minutes in line at Rite-Aid or two hours at the DMV.
#5 Airports and airplanes are meant for reading. Without books, there’s bound to be at least one bookworm guilty of air rage, like, every single day. Trust us, there are not enough air marshals for such a crisis.
#6 We have book crushes and book friends. Hey, a girl can dream of Mr. Darcy and still consider Lizzie Bennet her best friend (and yes, we’ve earned the right to call her Lizzie instead of Elizabeth).
#7 We’re totally fine with sleep deprivation. Some books we simply can’t put down. They leave us no choice but to cut down on sleep.
#8 We’re totally fine with missing a subway or bus stop (or missing a ride altogether). If it’s the only way we can squeeze in another chapter, so be it.
#9 Our travel bucket list is based on our favorite books. You’re going to Italy? Let me guess—Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” or E.M. Forster’s “A Room with a View”? It could also be Elena Ferrante. As for me, it was Forster.
#10 A perfect day consists of uninterrupted reading. A day of reading on the beach would be ideal, preferably somewhere in Hawaii. An afternoon curled up on the couch with the latest Jack Reacher book is acceptable, too. We bookworms are easy.
PHOTO BY VINCENT FAZZI
#11 We’re equal opportunity readers. E-books, hardcovers, paperbacks—they’re all the same to us. We won’t refuse an audio book, either. The method of delivery is not as important as the content.
#12 Given a choice between a Barnes & Noble gift card and a Dunkin’ Donuts gift card…Why are you even asking? Yeah, we love coffee and donuts, but who needs all that extra calories? A bookworm will never say no to a bookstore gift card.
Note: I’ve updated this list, first published on my old blog on Jan. 25, 2017.
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