- It’s Yours
This seems incredibly obvious. Of course, once you pay for something it becomes your possession. But the thought of a new piece of literature becoming your own property is incredibly exciting. Not only can you do whatever you want with the book: annotate it, crack the spine, and even take it for a swim in the bath if you want to (although this is not advised as it is a form of book cruelty), but it becomes part of your collection, and in extension a part of your identity. Everyone dresses their bookshelves to show their reading interests and aspects of their personality. So that new Fantasy find that just had you gushing as soon as you read the blurb – that’s yours to keep with you forever and shows where your interests – those little things that make you, well you – really lie.
2. The Build-Up To Reading It
Now you own this book, you have the opportunity to read it whenever you like. There are no strings attached, merely pick your new buy up whenever you fancy escaping reality for a little while. Whether you wait an hour, a week, or a year before you start flicking through the untouched pages; the thought of having no idea what plot twists and developments your new book will contain is pretty exciting, therefore when you finally get round to reading it, you can see if the novel was just as you imagined, or if the mysteries hidden within the depths of the pages were much, much better.
3. That New-Book Smell
If the new-book smell was an aftershave then I could guarantee that anyone wearing it would have a horde of book-lovers following their every move in the hope that a whiff of the wearer’s book-infused sweat would come their way. It’s impossible to say what exactly about the smell of unread pages is so appealing, but you can’t deny that you have on more than one occasion, opened up a book just to have a good old sniff.
4. The Cover Will Look Stunning on Your Book Shelf
You’re lying to yourself if you haven’t bought a book, partly because of the cover, or chose one edition over another even if it’s more expensive, just because you know it’ll look prettier on your shelf. The thought of how good that Clothbound Classic or Penguin English Library edition will look on your shelf is a pretty good incentive to spend a little bit of money on that book you’ve been meaning to read for a while. So, regardless of the story waiting inside, at least you can buy the book knowing that the cover will only make your book shelf all the more stunning.
5. The General Book Buying Experience
Obviously there are different methods of doing this, with some being better than others. Nevertheless, they’re all pretty satisfying. Whether you’re aware of what you’re going to buy before you do the deed, or if you’ve gone for a browse and your new purchase is a complete surprise; the anticipation of getting that new book is something which few things can match. Everything about reading: picking what you want to read, escaping reality for a little while, and then having a book hangover afterwards. Books are portals into other people’s imaginations, so the more you collect, the more you have access to.
And this is why you’re reading this post after all.
*Let me know what you think of this list? If you have any of your own ideas, feel free to make the comment section very aware!*
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