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Anatomy of a book

W

Wabbit

New Member
What is it you love most about a book, apart from the story itself?

Is it the warm cream paper? Is it the that faint forest scent of the paper? Is it the cover art? The way they sit on your shelf? Or is it something more intangable? A warm, living thing, that promises you stories and worlds? Could it be the whipser of the turning pages? The ink stamped into the pages that by magic bring to you the feelings and thoughts of another time and place?

What is it? What do you like the best? :)
 
I'm in love with everything about books. I'm very smell-sensitive, so of course I love the clean woody scent of the pages of a new book. I'm also a sucker for covers (that gets me into trouble quite frequently!). While I am reading a book, when I'm finished for the moment, I usually close the book and just take a minute to look at it, feel it, check out how far my bookmark has moved, etc.

Ah, books! I think I'll go read some right now! ;)
 
Once upon a time in my (pathetic :eek: ) life, books were the only friends I had. I was the biggest nerd in school and even the nerds didn't want to hang around with me. As the constant butt of jokes from kids that were supposed to be my friends, I retreated into books, as they don't tease, call names and step on your eye-glasses. Thankfully, I've grown up, gotten over it and I learned that people like I dealt with in my adolesence aren't worth my time. I'm still a nerd, always will be :rolleyes: , but the difference is now I have the self-confidence I lacked back then. About the books themselves, I love the smell of the paper, and the way I can go anywhere, to any time, do and see things I never could in reality. Some people live in a very small world, defined by the parameters of work, home and ,sometimes, play. My world is HUGE, with no limits, thanks to books. :D
 
I adore the way they look on my shelves, so I guess the cover-art and colour is what attracts me to part with cash. I also love broken spines on books (I know I'm likely to be on my own with that one) - to me, that shows how well-loved a book is.
 
New books - I like the way they look so crisp and shiny and smooth when you have just bought them from the bookshop.

Second hand books - I like looking for clues on the former reader - were they a page bender? when did they stop between reads? was it a christmas gift? eg front page inscribed "To Bob from Auntie Maud - Happy Xmas" etc. I then try to find out who Bob was and stalk him.

The last sentence is a joke.
 
Yeah, I like to so that with second hand books :)

I think every object has a story and often I like to imagine what's the objects story. Especially with books, as they are so personal, and they touch their reader in so many ways.

Really nice to read what people love about their books! Glad I started the thread :)
 
Gosh, all of that and more! I like the smell and feel of a really nice paper especially, so I'm partial to hardcovers, which also have the reassuring heft to them.

But my real love is the language, so even ebooks are acceptable.
 
i love hardcover books too. i love the strength in the covers, i especially love a battered hardcover. i like the freshness of a virgin book, just because it's new and i like new, clean things. but used books do have a mysterious quality that i love. who read it? did they enjoy it? why did they buy it?

but, really, for me it's simply the stories. i love books because i love the stories. the stories are what make the books my "friends". maybe it's weird, but it's true. i never realized how close i was to my books until i had to start packing them away for storage.
 
What I like about books is that you can get them for free from the library. If you find that you don't like the book, you don't feel guilty about taking it back unfinished since there was no money spent.

I also like the book smells, and books with smooth cold pages rather than warm "textury" pages. I also like 'em when they lay flat on their own so I don't get a cramp in my hand from trying to hold them open.
 
It's that atmosphere you get when you read. It's how you can start reading and get so involved that you don't notice that you're actually reading the words. You can't see the book in front of you all you can see is like a televison in your mind and it's all up to your interpretation and imagination of the story. It's just fun and I love the smell of old books :D !!!
 
I love the stories, I love getting sucked into fantastical worlds, getting lost there and forget about the everyday life (job, university,...). But it's not only that, I also like to touch the books I read, to feel the pages, smell the paper - if I buy a new book, I often take some minutes - once I get home with my treasures - to browse through the pages so that I get a feel to the book in my hand, to establish a "relationship". I know this might sound silly, and I wouldn't tell anybody else about this "relationship-thing", but since this is a book forum I guess that I'm not the only one here who is an absolute book addict. :p and I'm not making a complete fool out of myself....

And since I like to touch/smell my books, I really can't stand library books or second hand books (I wouldn't dare stick my sensitive nose into a book that somebody might have read while in the toilet :eek: ).
I also don't like e-books or audio-books...it's just not the same without the letters printed on paper.
 
I adore new books and I'm always leaving through them because they are feeling so new. I also love they way they look in my bookself and sometimes when I'm sitting in my bed I look at my books and smile. I've the urge to take them out of the bookshelf and remember their stories and where I bought them (I always scribble my name, the day and place I bought them at the first page).
I'm a great cover lover too. Most of the time when I'm looking for a special book I try to find the edition with the best cover.
 
Speaking in purely aesthetic terms, and not referring to the content, I love looking at my shelves and seeing all the books from different ranges lined up. The Penguin Classics and Voyager Classics ranges look very pleasing.
 
Call me crazy, but I love natty old paper backs with cramped text on yellow pages and coffee rings on the back. The very best thing is getting a book from a second hand store and finding someones old love letters or laundry lists tucked in between the covers. I once found a parting letter, on hotel stationary, from Monique to Jean AND Francois in a collection of short stories by Angela Carter. Makes you wonder.

For new books, I like fancy trade paperbacks with matte covers that don't curl, creamy rough-cut pages, and spines that lay flat without cracking. Probably my ideal book is Umberto Eco's The Island of the Day Before, which I love to hold and flip through the pages, although I've never managed to read more than fifty of them. :rolleyes:

I also love slim, leather bound volumes of poetry, small enough to fit in your pocket with a faded ribbon sewn into spine, pages thin as tissue paper with worn gilt edges. All the better if inscribed from one long dead lover to another, in spidery, old fashioned handwriting on the marbled end papers.

peace, buddi
 
buddi said:
Call me crazy,
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You're crazy! :D

but I love natty old paper backs with cramped text on yellow pages and coffee rings on the back. The very best thing is getting a book from a second hand store and finding someones old love letters or laundry lists tucked in between the covers. I once found a parting letter, on hotel stationary, from Monique to Jean AND Francois in a collection of short stories by Angela Carter. Makes you wonder.

peace, buddi
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Yeah, really like the old ones. And you know, they always have the best scent! They smell great! Aged paper and dreams :)
 
My favourites are two box sets, one of which is a large hardback edition of LotR, printed on beautiful thick cartridge paper and illustrated by Alan Lee (concept artist for the films.) The other is that manga I keep harping on about, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I'm more paranoid about harm coming to my graphic novels than to my normal books, to be honest.
 
Speaking of smells...

A friend of mine, who recently quit smoking, lent me a book that smelled so strongly of cigarette smoke that I could hardly stand to open it at first. But once I'd had it for a couple of weeks, the smell mellowed and it was actually kind of nice. Plus the pages weren't just yellow, they were heading toward more of a brown color.
 
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