What is a Bibliophile? The Wonderful Dilemmas of a Bibliophile

Bibliophile Meaning

The simplest definition of meaning is that Bibliophile is a person who loves to read books!

If you’re someone who falls in love with even the smell of books, then know you are a bibliophile. Do not fret, it is a wonderful thing to be. Books are the greatest friends one can have; they demand nothing in return for the companionship they provide. I read somewhere, reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body and it couldn’t be any truer. Reading is an addiction one can’t go without because the more one reads the more, they crave. There is a world of knowledge we gain from a book, be it any book. But a bibliophile’s world is far from free of problems. Readers as a mass face several conundrums, and that’s where this blog the wonderful dilemmas of a bibliophile comes into play. We are their advocates.

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be kind of a library.”

-Jorge Luis Borges

Bibliophile 101

When someone carries a book around it might be a little odd to people, given the age and era. it’s the age of Prime videos and Netflix. Who has time to read books. But know this there is no escape from reality better than a book. Limit screen time to a bare minimum, and you will notice a great change. I know what you are thinking, this is a hard one to swallow in today’s times. Reducing the screen time by eliminating the excessive use of smart phones, tablets, laptops, television, etc. would help in utilizing the excessive free time in doing more productive and fulfilling tasks only like maybe reading a book. It will take you places you’ve never been, some may even be to the outer space, or to a different dimension all together.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

-Dr. Seuss

Now when you become an ardent reader, it comes with certain responsibilities and also with a number of dilemmas. Here’s looking at a few.

Bibliophile Dilemma 1: To hoard or not to hoard

Book Hoarders, Beware! Your tactic of buying books and pilling them up by not even reading a page is exposed now. Tsundoku is the word for you. It’s surely a Japanese word which means indulging in the act of buying reading materials and then ultimately piling them up. Now, the intention while buying may not always be hoarding, but it always ends up so. Oh! a hardcover, let’s buy it, even though you have a perfectly fine paperback at home. Oh! that cover looks so pretty, but you already have a copy with you. So what, let’s buy it. This act of buying regardless of having a perfectly good copy is what we call hoarding. It’s never easy for a bibliophile to just give up on a book. Therefore, for your safety never take a bookworm to a library or god forbid a book shop.

Bibliophile Dilemma 2: what to pack and what to leave

This is when you’re moving from one place to another. First of all, readers must never be made to move and if they are they should be allowed to take all their lovelies (books) with them. How unfair is it to ask someone to choose between their children, it’s the same for readers to choose between their books. Books on top of all of that are pretty damn heavy, which makes the debate even harder to win. This is the case when you’re going out too. I mean whenever you’re going out you have got to take a book with you, for circumstances may appear where you need one.

But there is no handbag out there or pocket big enough to fit a few of these babies. While you think about which books to pack and which to leave behind, here’s a blog you can read, and get over the wonderful dilemmas of a bibliophile.

Bibliophile Dilemma 3: Betraying a physical book?

Ask any bibliophile and they’ll say they love the feel of the book in their hands and the honest pleasure of turning each page. But times have changed and with electronic books in the picture, the choice has become incredibly hard to make. Of course, some of us have embraced the change wholeheartedly, seeing how electronic books are easy to carry around and you can have thousands in a sleek tablet, which is thinner than a book even. But for some of the others the change has been nothing but cruel.

Bibliophile Dilemma 4: The sleepless nights

The dilemma here is to turn the page or not. It so happens for readers that we spend many sleepless nights poring over books. Just another page. One more chapter. This is the last one, I promise. But these are all broken promises and by the time we do need to sleep morning has arrived and the book has been completed. It’s never easy to just close the book and go to sleep. These are hard decisions we make, but these we say at Podium School are the wonderful dilemmas of a bibliophile.

Bibliophile Dilemma 5: Blah! the book was better

The book is always better. Whenever a book is made into a movie, we get into this whole debate with our friends on how the book was so much better. And to prove that we’d say just read it. We forget that they don’t have anything to compare the movie with since they’ve not read the book. So, they think the movie was good. But oh no! you don’t.

A bibliophile would argue their voice off on how the book was way better, and how the movie doesn’t even come closer to it. And then there is the cast, which is a big let off, and so difficult to get over the hurt of it. And we ask how they could do that. Why ruin the book by making it into a movie. This is the wonderful dilemmas of a bibliophile on how murdering is considered a crime, or they could’ve killed the Director. What is a Bibliophile? The Wonderful Dilemmas of a Bibliophile by far was the only movie which was better than the book, which was a total shock.

Final thoughts on Bibiliophiles

Podium school urges everyone to read. Read whatever, read whenever. Books are the only way apart from travelling where you could experience what life is like for other people. We might not be able to travel the world and talk to people from other cultures. But we certainly can read about them. I particularly look for novels that are written by people of the culture they are writing about. When they read books about the experiences of people who live far differently from themselves, they are building a sense of empathy, and learning that their experience isn’t the only one.

“So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away. And in its place you can install, a lovely bookshelf on the wall.”
— Roald Dahl

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