Bibliophilia – the best obsession you can ever have

Books – the source of knowledge, the source of hope, the source of entertainment are understood by very specific people. I am not talking about comprehending the content rather I am talking about books suiting an individual.

The specific set of people who love and understand books, their importance, are known as book Readers.

Book readers do not let one day go by when they don’t touch their books. They crave to travel such that they can read their favorite books in the train or in the plane.

The book readers have no problem in standing in a long queue of, let’s say, a ropeway car that takes you to the top of the hill because they are going to use the waiting time in reading books.

Their life never suck because there exists no boredom in their lives as there are truly countless books to read in the world.

What is a bibliophile?

So, when you see a book reader cycling in the gym but also having a book in his/her hands with eyes fixated in the book and legs paddling, when you find a person who reads few pages of his book as the first task after waking up and the last task before sleeping, one who cuddles the book while sleeping then fella you’re looking at a bibliophile.

A book reader is a person who loves to read books but a bibliophile is a book reader whose love for books turns into a charming obsession, way over the edge.

The definition of bibliophile is a person who loves to read books, who loves to collect books and the one because of whom the company which makes bookshelves is making big bucks.

So, now you’re familiar with the definition of a bibliophile.

Synonyms of bibliophile

The synonyms of bibliophile are bibliomaniac, bookworm, voracious reader but this is all technical, the real synonyms of bibliophile are intellectual, learned, well read, and extraordinary.

Yes, if you have always been a bibliophile then there are very high chances of you having high intellect, if you have been a bibliophile for a long time then you are already well read and the odds of your brain functioning better than non-readers are too high.

Therefore, even though some so called “cool” people may call you a ‘bookworm’, may see you with contempt, may throw jibes at you of being sunk in books all day, even on holidays but don’t let these taunts and remarks bring you down because you have something which they will never have – book love and subconsciously they envy you for, like you, they don’t have the love for books.

Bibliophile Pronunciation

Well, there are people who can’t hear anything against the movie stars they like, there are people who hate those who criticize the acts of heroes they love, then there are those who can’t hear anything fowl against their favorite sports team, likewise, a bibliophile can’t hear anything against books, which means, all books.

I personally feel that a bibliophile can’t even stand a wrong pronunciation of the world bibliophile. I have heard some people say it as bublo-filee, beeblo-pile and many weirder twists of the word.

However, the correct pronunciation is [beeb-leo-file], simple to say and hear. A bibliophile hates to hear an incorrect pronunciation so, if you have not been into this word then this section will certainly help you correctly say it.

Signs you’re a bibliophile

As a book reader, you must have thought once whether you fall in the category of a bibliophile or there is still some distance for you to cover to get past that milestone. Here are 5 signs that you’re a bibliophile –

1. You get attracted to a bookshop

I go mall a lot in order to hang out with myself. Don’t think of me as a shopping buff but you can think of me as a total window shopping personality who visits mall because there is no entry fee and you feel good with so many brands around you. I always prefer to go to a mall very near to my office.

There is a bookshop in the ground floor of the mall and once, I found myself in a situation that I had to wait for an hour in front of the book shop.

I saw people passing by without even looking at the shop. After a while a couple of guys came around, entered the shop and came out empty-handed. They just went in to pass time but seeing so many books they must have freaked out and thus, decided to leave.

A couple of minutes later, two girls came by with shopping bags in their hands, they looked at the book shop and as an observer I found a change in expression on their face.

The expression was clearly of being attracted towards the bookshop. They went in, and I started minding my own business after that, but since, I was waiting there after an hour their exit from the bookshop caught my attention again.

The number of shopping bags increased with a couple of additional bags with the bookshop name on them, there must have been no less than 4-5 books in each bag.

Those girls were Bibliophiles. You must be wondering why was I so confident?

Because they happened to pass by me and all they were chatting about was they already had a couple of books unread in their home but they bought more.

Bibliophilia at its best!

2. You always boast on your book collection

A bibliophile feels pride in his book collection. They read books, they collect books, they form their book collection over a period of time and they never take a step back having given the opportunity of showing off their books’ collection.

You can find such bibliophiles on social media sites displaying their books’ collection.

An interesting opportunity arises in looking at people’s book collection because you get to know about some books which may not have heard of, or which you were always searching for but couldn’t get it. It’s simple you get to know what others are reading.

There have been pictures on the Internet in which you see books neatly lined in the bookshelves and when there is no room in bookshelves then people keep their books even in empty suitcases. Truly, they treat books like a family member and this is another sign of being a bibliophile.

3. You know about almost every book

Science is a boon as well as a bane, everything good comes at a cost. While one can be in instant contact with another through a smartphone and can check important emails, smartphone also plays a role in deviating people from their social life.

I won’t go further in it as we all know it, however, based on this thought a couple of my friends started an offline book club a couple of years ago. Everyone was invited in that club on just one condition, you’ll have to leave your smartphone outside the club room.

The only thing we did in the club was conversing about different books. Everyone would tell us about the content of the book he/she read and this way, we all got to know which all books to read next.

In the club came a guy, his name Vishal. Whenever anyone started conversing about a new book or the book that 80% of the club population never read, Vishal would jump into the conversation with his thoughts about the book.

I mean to say, that he was there expressing thoughts about every book that was discussed in the book club. One day, he was asked – ‘have you seriously read every book that we talk about?’ He humbly answered ‘most of them’.

Vishal from our book club was a voracious book reader, a bibliomaniac, a patient of bibliophilia.

4. You have to read the book before getting into anything else

It is common in an IT company that people work beyond 12 am, particularly when the project deadlines are near. In 2013, I was in the same work mode, in fact, my entire team was crushing itself to meet the project deadlines.

On one busy night I went to the pantry with one of my colleagues of the team for a cup of hot tea.

We started sharing experiences of living in share, which means, living with roommates. My colleague told me about the peculiar habit of his roommate.

He told me that as per his work schedule, his roommate would arrive very late around 2 to 3 AM in the morning. Now, most of us would think of nothing but crashing on the bed, some would also think of watching a movie or a web series but this gentleman would read a book.

The peculiarity was that he had an obsession of reading at least 5-7 pages before sleeping and many a times, my colleague also saw him opening books just after he would get up.

Even when that gentleman would go out for a trek or a party, he would get ready before everyone else and would utilize the time reading a book while others were getting ready.

This peculiar obsession of touching a book before doing anything else, even sleeping, is the sign that you’re a bibliophile.

5. You prefer books over television

A very good friend of mine told me about his younger brother who would get very excited at 8 pm every night because, at that time all the good sitcoms and series would begin on Television pulling all the people in house in the room which had TV.

There wasn’t much concern of his family members roaming around in either kitchen or bedroom or in his room as they all would get hooked to the TV.

He, unlike, kids of his age would use that time reading books in his room happily without any disturbance.

There are people like my friend’s younger brother who always prefer books over any other source of entertainment, who wait for weekend to arrive such that they can spend the entire day reading books.

In the woods, on the beach, you’ll find them reading as they prefer gaining knowledge sitting and reading in the lap of nature rather than spending time streaming movies or web series.

Role of Parents

The current generation is smart and hopefully, the next will be smarter. Parents often cherish at their toddlers using YouTube to watch videos even when they haven’t begun to walk.

But, doesn’t matter how smarter the generation gets with evolving technologies, nothing will ever replace BOOKS which have been a source of knowledge for centuries.

So, there is an utter need on the part of parents if they are handing their phone in one hand of their kids, they’ll have to ensure that they are handing books in the other one.

Developing book love in your kids is, perhaps, one of the best component of raising them nicely. When they have grown to a level of understanding things, you can prefer spending a Sunday afternoon reading any good children book to them and who knows that in future, in your house, you find a bibliophile.

After word

I believe you’re now very much aware with ‘what is the meaning of Bibliophile?’

Being a bibliophile is not easy. The very love of books needs to be at the foundation and not show-off.

A bibliophile is often mocked and scorned off. They are believed to be uncool and are called geeks but the so called cool people are often employed by these uncool bibliophiles, there are many examples of that in this world.

The desire to read and learn, to acquire knowledge and a long lasting reading habit are what is required to make you a bibliophile and once, you feel that you’re showing any one of the above signs then you, my friend, have become a bibliophile.

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