A bibliophile of little means is likely to suffer often. Books don’t slip from his hands but fly past him through the air, high as birds, high as prices.
~ William Lyon Phelps
A bibliophile’s best dreams must be getting lots of books to read and getting extra hours in a day to read them. But we experience certain nightmares as well. These are those most dreadful nightmares which we never want to come true.
In this post, I am talking about few worst nightmares for every bibliophile.
- Disorganised Bookshelf
Our room may be messy, but our bookshelf should be properly organized and clean. Cleaning for us only means to rearrange our bookshelf and admire our beloved books for ours. After arranging, we feel immensely proud of our prized possession.
So, our worst nightmare is a disorganised bookshelf. We cannot even *think* about it. Our books should be properly arranged according to heights, colours, genres or authors. If they are not arranged as per any of the basis or someone just mixed them. Or while taking out one book, all other books fell down, then we just feel so irritated. And we try arranging it as soon as possible.
2. Lost Bookmark
We are reading some book and we have kept the bookmark in between the pages so that we do not need to remember the page number or the worst *dog-ear* the page. But what if bookmark falls down from the book or we lost it somehow. How can we reach to the exact page? What if we read something from the page we haven’t read? This is the most terrible thing for a bibliophile.
3. Getting book spoilers
Who love spoilers? No one does. Similarly, we bibliophiles do not appreciate spoilers for our books at all. We try to avoid the conversation about the book with people who have already read it. We try to not read those reviews which contains spoilers. So yes, getting book spoilers is the worst nightmare possible for us.
4. Fear of not getting enough books during travel
Here I will share one of my personal experience. Last year, I had to go on a small trip of just one week to my hometown. I was just done with my semester exams, so I haven’t read any books other than academic books. I was very confused about which book I should take with me and how many books are enough. I was afraid what if I read all of them and run out of books. But after lots of calculation, I took three books for me. And I completed just one of them which was around 100 pages and that too in the train. Apart from that, I couldn’t get enough time to read other two books.
So yeah, we have this fear of not getting enough books during travel even if we don’t get time to read them.
5. DAMAGE to books
Books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.
I completely agree with this quote by John Green. For me my books are like my babies. I cannot withstand any damage caused to them.
While lending our books to anyone, we repeatedly tell them that we are giving them our heart. So please don’t make any damage and take care of it. If possible, we can even make them sign an agreement.
So, damage of any kind to our books is the most terrible crime. It is unforgivable even if it is done by us (obviously by mistake).
6. Reading Slump
Yes, we love reading always and wherever possible. But there are days when we are not even able to read one page. We open the book but cannot concentrate and keep on looking at the number of pages left. It is what we call “Reading Slump.”
Reading slump may happen because any book which we are not liking still reading for the sake of reading. Or maybe we are exhausted or something. Those days are the worst ever. When we have books as well as time, but we are unable to read because of this slump. Hence, it is the worst nightmare for the bibliophiles.
7. Not be able to read ALL-THE-BOOKS
I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.
There are millions of books in this world. There are many authors whom we have not read but to read in future. But this life is short. The revelation, that we would be unable to read all those books that we want to read, make us so upset. It is really the worst ever nightmare for us which is actually true. That is the reason we want to read as many books as we can.
That’s it for today. I hope you would have liked it.
Can you relate with any of them? Do you want add more in the list? Share in the comments.
I have written this post for #AtoZChallenge and my theme is “Love for the books”
You can follow me on twitter @richa_525
Renaissance Existence 
So so true. I hate it when I have lost my bookmark and when I run out of books during a journey. People who never return the books you lent to them are the most horrible humans. But some of my nightmares have been taken away thanks to my faithful Kindle. I feel guilty for not reading frequently, not finishing a book and of course, I wonder when in the world I’m going to read all the books on my to-do list. Being a bibliophile and a perfectionist means that your bookshelf is going to be arranged a lot of times until it is absolutely, absolutely perfect! You have compiled a great list that I’m sure every bibliophile will admit to. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am glad you could relate to all of these things. Yes I too feel guilty when I am wasting my time and not reading.
Thank you so much for going through this. 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
The pleasure is all mine. 🙂
LikeLike
Yeah so true.. I ‘ve the reading slump and its so disheartening, sometimes not able to focus looking the story line and getting to see the number of pages. Oh plus I nag when it comes to lending books. So i guess I am safe in there! Yesterday I got like many TBR and I started reading the first lines of many books at once. How am I suppose to read all at once, how crazy was that of me. Finally, i’d to conclude with One Book At a Time!
Regards
Insane kikz
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can’t stop myself from lending books. I like to share them. But then I have terms and conditions. And thankfully, most of times they followed them.
I can relate with thing when you start lots of books together when you want to read all of them. It’s really a struggle that I’m currently facing.
Thank you so much for reading this. 😊
LikeLike
❤
LikeLike
Ditto on each one you listed. Particularly losing the bookmark. Audiobooks make it even worse.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am novice to audiobooks. Just listened one of them. If this problem exists in them, then it would be surely little irritating.
Also, thank you so much for reading. 😊
LikeLike
Well, the problems mentioned above except 3, 6, & 7 have been solved with ebooks.
And, spoilers is main reason I don’t read reviews of everybody. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are right these problems have been solved by kindle, but just little bit, for me atleast. Because I prefer paperback over kindle.
Thank you going through this post.
LikeLike
Well, I’m not so much of a bibliophile. I love reading content (blogs or general trivia), but I somehow don’t have the patience and the discipline to read books. I like anthologies with short stories though.
Forwarding this link to a bibliophile right away :p
Do drop by mine.
My theme for the Challenge is a satire/humour series titled ‘Idiosyncrasies of a Covidiot’
Cheers,
CRD
http://www.scriptedinsanity.blogspot.com
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much. 😊
I will surely check your posts.
LikeLike