Happy Valentine’s Day!
In honor of this romantic holiday, we’re going to cover the subject of love. But not just any old average sort. It won’t be mushy like a Hallmark card or melodramatic like a WB show.
This Valentine’s Day, Innovative Editing is delving into the love of books. Bibliophilia.
Ooh la la!
Don’t worry. I’ll do my best to keep this hot and heavy topic G-rated no matter how utterly attractive well-written books can be. There’s just something about their feel and scent (if you’re old-school like me and still buy printed copies, anyway): a siren’s call to dump our daily drudgery. To get up close and personal with something that keeps us enthralled for hours on end.
What’s to love about books? Let me count the ways…
They're full of opportunities to learn. It doesn’t matter what genre a book falls into, whether fiction or non-fiction. There’s always something new to take in. It might be vocabulary, mythology, writing styles, business tactics, historical facts, future projections or possibilities. But whatever it is, it’s bound to broaden your brainpower.
Books open the door to action and adventure. Believe it or not, this applies just as strictly to non-fiction as fiction. And it ties right in with Bibliophilia Basis No. 1, as listed right above. Whenever we learn something new, it provides a range of opportunities for us to act on that knowledge. We can choose to explore a subject further with more reading, or we can put it to use in compelling our own stories forward. Did we just read a historical non-fiction book? We can change our mindsets about past events, treating our fellow humans differently as a result. That can then lead us into new relationships, new job positions, new organizations and other realms of adventure. Is our current book a fantasy novel? Then we’re probably in for an otherworldly ride.
Books show us we’re not alone. Everyone has thought, is thinking or will think at some point that they’re in a tragically isolated bubble. Nobody understand them. Nobody likes them. Nobody cares about them. They’re going to eat some worms. Right? That’s being a bit flippant, clearly. But it is just a fact that none of us consistently feel at home in our skin, in our heads or on our own planet 24/7. And books have a tendency to show us that, contrary to popular opinion, everyone feels like that. With no exceptions. The successful businessman who wrote that non-fiction best-seller. The literary fiction author who’s so very good at capturing human emotions because she’s so good at feeling human emotions. The memoir writer who bravely admits he doesn’t have it all figured out. They’re truly comforting reminders of how, yes, we don’t always feel great about ourselves or our situations. But we’re never actually alone.
They inspire new book ideas. This one’s for writers only, I know, but it’s such a big one! We writers use each other as springboards all the time. While plagiarizing is obviously a big no-no, and fan fiction is controversial, using an author’s ideas to springboard into our own pools of creativity is highly enjoyable, accepted and recommended.
How about you? Any reasons to add to this list? Shoot me an email with whatever your bibliophilia is based on. I’d truly love to hear your “I love books because…” explanations!
And no, that’s not just Valentine’s Day talking.