I Like Books...

...I like books.

I like the feel of a book, the reassuring weight, the smell as you flick back the pages. When you first get new a book, it needs to be cherished, taken so slowly as it is opened for the first time. When the get an old book and you appreciate the delicacy of the yellowing pages. I don't even need to know the story. I like books.

With a book, you know the story is in there, so you can appreciate the book without knowing the story. It's not going anywhere, you can hold an entire world in your hands and scarcely know a thing about the world within, but still love the book. When you do know of the story, your taste of the book may disappear, so better to hold onto the sacred feel of a book less read, is it not?

There are fewer things more delightful that being surrounded by books, browsing an endless bookcase where nothing necessarily stands out. You just pick a book, and place it back, and pick another and repeat the process, enjoying only a sip of each. The first page, perhaps, maybe just the blurb... let's not rush into things.

I like books, and books never reciprocate. They throw you around all over the place when you decide to take the plunge, they take you to happy worlds and treat your feeling so kindly, then just as quickly they cut you down. Slice. Stab. Garotte. Then they're over. Though you never hate the book, because when the book ends you feel empty, despite the ups and downs of the emotional obliteration they put you through. Sometimes, you even go back to feel exactly the same at the hands of the same book, as if the intensity of the memory has fled to the extent you think it'll be okay. It's more than okay. It's soul destroying, and too fantastic to forget. The stories they contain become part of you, thoughts in your own adventures, actions in your own story.

You'll carry on in your life and you will meet someone who shares your interests. You tell them the books you like, and you even recommend the books you like, suggesting that they should feel the intensity you felt, and you can share in the brutality of that book. Then one day, you'll be out, roaming the real world. You'll see a person and you'll see them looking down; smirking. You notice that they are reading a book that you love. Reading a book where you smirked that same way, and it is such a great feeling. You're not jealous, why would you be? Because in that moment, the book is recommending someone. It is recommending you a person and just like when a friend recommends a book, you don't have to take the recommendation, you might not like the recommendation... but you might love it.

So speak to them. Just go and see what happens. Maybe it'll begin a new story; a story that inspires books!

...I like books.