Geeking Out: By the Book
Not only is this week Speak Out With Your Geek Out, but Thursday on the internet means only one thing: It’s Indie Thursday, the day we celebrate independent bookstores. This week is a special Indie Thursday, because I have a guest post up today at Jenn’s Bookshelves, a kickass book blog. I figured why not spread the love further and talk about my love of books for Speak Out!
Being a Geek is just another way of saying you’re really, really into something. By that definition, I am a Geek about Books.
I started reading at a very young age and was one of those kids that made my poor mom read me not one bedtime story, but three, or four, or five. She’d usually fall asleep halfway through the middle of the second one and I’d have to wake her up, or finish the story myself. That’s how I learned.
These days, despite moving several times and knowing how heavy books are to haul around, I will buy almost any book on sight if I can afford it. I love books. I love the smell of a new book, the feel of cracking open a hardcover for the first time. I loved the look and feel of the “Little Golden Books” as a kid, I liked how they all lined up and matched even though the stories were so different. My first favorite book, I believe, was called The Pokey Little Puppy. I would read it over and over, even though I had it memorized.
When I started attending school, I checked out nearly every book in the library, and even got special permission to check out more books than was normally allowed because I would finish reading and return them so quickly. My school had an Accelerated Reader program to encourage students to read as many books as they could, especially the longer chapter books that were worth more points. I was always at the head of the race with the most points of my grade.
As I got older, I began to love textbooks. Even if I didn’t like doing the work, I liked the big, thick books. I like how they felt, how they looked, I liked exploring the stories that weren’t taught in class. I liked how clean the pages were and how the paper didn’t feel like the regular book paper, it was sleek and shiny.
I like owning books. I like looking at them on the shelf, I like reading them, I like thumbing through the pages. Even if I only read the book once, I can look at it and remember the story, remember the time when I read it and how happy it made me. I have a collection of books I haven’t read yet, too, that I like to choose from when I feel like I need to read something “different.” My own little library.
Without books, I’m not sure what my life would be like. Books got me through not having many friends as a kid by giving me other places and people to escape to. The Harry Potter series is responsible for most of my web design skill and many of my friends that I have now. John Green’s novels gave me another entire community of people to interact with online.
Books may not seem “geeky” to many people, but they’re the heart of many activities that are considered “geeky.” If you like books, you might also enjoy role playing - online role playing, like I mentioned in my previous post, is just a form of storytelling. You write your character’s story just like you might write a book, except you write with other people and other characters to create unique perspectives. Tabletop role playing relies heavily on books – books tell you which rules to follow, what monsters to fight, and how to create your character.
Many of your favorite geeky movies have tie-in books also, such as Star Wars and Star Trek. Books serve as guides for video games and travelers alike; they teach, enlighten, and inspire. Behind every geek is at least one good book.
Are you a book geek? Do you collect them by the hordes like I do, or do you just have one or two favorites that you keep close by? Do you just like regular books like novels, or do you collect super geeky books like role playing guides?
Leave a comment! Say hi! Lets geek out about BOOKS.
I’m not the only person who loves textbooks. Oh I adore you.