Used and abused, shiny and new, accumulating dust in an old Victorian basement or neatly packed in rows in a glass building downtown—whatever, I don’t care, I just want to read any books that make me feel, that trigger something other than boredom. For hours, stuck between the science fiction, horror, lit, fantasy and young adult sections, my hands and eyes can’t move fast enough. It’s like a drug, something that has become a part of me and won’t let go: I need books and always more books.
Stories, it’s all about who does what and when. What happens, what the characters learn, what we learn about ourselves through them. Entertaining, yes, but it’s so much more personal than that. I become friends and foes with some of these people the writers have created. I hate when something bad lurks around the corner and relish a good fight scene where the villain gets it in the nuts. I become involved with the characters, their stories become mine, for the length of a book. And if I’m really lucky, it stimulates ideas for a new story—hint, hint, Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist inspired the character Liriel in my novelette Misery of Me, published in Tattered Souls Volume 2 by The Cutting Block Press, available on Amazon.com August 1st.
I even travel across the border for good, used books, but sadly, I’ll be looking for a new pusher because the one I love, the Corner-Stone Bookshop in Plattsburgh, NY, is shutting down. Sad face, broken heart.
I also go to this huge bookstore near my home to feast on sales, tables of them, luring me in, tantalizing my want for distraction and, somehow, education. And I always give in, I have no power against a glossy hardcover or bendy paperback: I am that weak. When my stash starts to thin out, I know the time is coming to make a little trip to my ‘medicine’ supplier.
Whenever I open the door of a bookstore, I feel it in my veins: the possibility of reading something great, something that will change my view on things, which will leave a mark for a few days to a few years. If not forever.
Anne Michaud 
June 8th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
I’m Anne’s book buddy…and I can assure you, it’s true! She is a book maniac! 🙂
June 9th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Good blog Anne! Glad you’re doing something for yourself. Its a ‘blog away from Livy’ which gives us some insight into you as a person. Loved the books blog. Such passion. 🙂
June 9th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Right? It feels GREAT to be talking about what I want, who I like, who I love or hate, about MY world.
I miss her, though 😦
June 9th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Great post, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I too am glad to see you writing about ‘you’. 🙂 Love your theme here and i haven’t forgotton you I swear. 😉
I chalk up me walking into a bookstore, as something akin to and an art lover walking into the Louvre. Always something old and new and wonderful. 🙂
June 9th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
And the best part is we get to take the books home – although I wouldn’t mind a Munch or Modigliani, it sadly will NEVER happen.
June 10th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
I know the feeling Anne. When I lived in Whitehaven (Cumbria) a few years ago now, we have a WHSmiths (souless corporation) and a bookshop (Cribbs). The bookshop was the place I used to go to order and buy my favourite authors, I’d be in most weeks trying to find out if a new one was out.
I had fond memories of it and when I heard it had shut I too thought of wearing the black armband. Such a shame that the souless corporations are taking out the independent who you knew as well as trusted with recommendations.
June 10th, 2011 at 1:08 pm
And it’s the people who go to small bookstores, too. The way they touch the leather-bounds, the way they wait by the cash register, holding the books close to their chest. Sigh. I will miss Corner-Stone, but maybe – if my friend and I and others who go there are all really lucky – someone else will buy it and carry on. Fingers crossed.
June 10th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
I feel you! I’ve got the same obsession. I can spend hours in a book store and I get really excited when I know I’ve got to go to pick up a gift for someone else! I also feel like some of the well written characters are my friends and I miss them when the story ends!
June 10th, 2011 at 1:45 pm
Angie – I still miss Daniel sempere from Shadow of the Wind and I’ve read it two years ago!! But then we get to spread the joy and have them meet with other book lovers, so they never die once the book is closed 🙂