The Bookish Edition
This week I've been thinking about books and other bookish things. You know, I've actually been called bookish on a number of occasions — that’s just how cool I am.
Then, as I was writing this I thought, heeeeey, wait a minute, I don't think they meant that as a compliment -- isn't bookish a pejorative? (spoiler: yes) So, then I thought, wow, researching whether or not an adjective I was called is a pejorative is a super bookish thing to do. Then, I was mad for a minute, but I went and read a book about books until I forgot about it. In summary, I’m a bookish goober who loves books and words, and apparently, everyone knows it.
So, let's go ahead and crack this edition open -- but no dog-earing the pages, please.
An Open Book
Let’s get the definition of bookish out of the way. It’s awesome, right? SO GOOD. I feel like I can smell the bookstore just reading it.
Speaking of which — scientists have discovered why old books smell so good.
And I swear, if any of you message me or leave a comment below about how old books smell gross, I WILL CRY. Old books smell like happiness and love and hugs and LIFE.
Book Smart
Hi, yeah, I’ll have one Bulleit Blume please — an Old Fashioned and a copy of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (I just made that up and now I really want one.)
As a child, the book fair was the ONLY redeeming quality of elementary school. One good book fair could make me forget all about being forced to play crab soccer every freaking day in P.E. I’m a writer, I’ve NEVER had upper body strength.
By the Book
Did you know people used to be as scared of excessive book reading as they are now of too much screen time? Especially for women. Victorian men were afraid that if women spent too much time reading they would forget how to differentiate between fiction and their real lives.
Omg, guys, I was just reading and then the next thing I know I was in the back yard taking stuff over and over from this really generous, but sad tree until it was just a stump and I was old and sat on it. WHAT DO I DO?
#NotAllVictorianMenOhWaitYeahPrettyMuchEverySingleOneOfThem
Thankfully, we know better now. We know that books are amazing and can take us anywhere and let us experience nearly anything.
I won’t post the whole thing here, but if you’ve never seen Zen Pencils, go there now. It’s a “cartoon blog which adapts inspirational quotes into comic stories.” The image above is linked to a fantastic quote by Carl Sagan about books.
There are, of course, about a million more things I want to say about books, but I’m trying to keep this newsletter from becoming a tome, so I’ll just leave you with this picture of impossibly cute and tiny pop up books. If you read last week’s newsletter, The Cute Things Edition, you’ll understand why you probably want to eat these. Just remind your brain, THESE ONES AREN’T FOR EATING.
Oh, and if you want to keep falling down this rabbit hole, Tiny Book YouTube is real and so very good.
Until next time,
Ava
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The bookish may enjoy reading these:
Great Movies Based On Books
21 Comedies And Dramas To Add To Your Watch And Read Lists
https://moviewise.substack.com/p/great-movies-based-on-books