Wow—talk about feeling the love! Thanks to all 115 (and counting) of you who finished the sentence, “You know you’re in book love when…”
Did you know there were so many fellow passionistas of the book? I wasn’t surprised, just delighted by the ingenious ways readers find to get their fix.
Picking five winners was tough, even using our questionable criteria, so I did what I always do when things are tough—I turned it over to a woman. In this case, to our able editor of Levenger Press, Mim Harrison. How she did it, I don’t know and am afraid to ask, but here are the winners, along with their award-winning completions of the sentence, “You know you’re in book love when…”
1. Epiphany Award: Beth Bolay
“…you finish a book and realize that it has changed your view of the world forever and that you will never live your life the same way again.”
2. Economic Stimulus Award: Jean M. Appleton
“…you are planning to put your house on the market because it no longer has enough wall space for all of the bookshelves you need to house your (still growing) collection.”
(Jean, could we interest you in our BookBoxes?–S.L.)
3. Plugged-In-to-Reading Award: Kimberly Reimann
“…you are currently reading 1) a Dickens classic on your Palm Device, 2) a Dennis Lehane thriller on your Kindle, 3) a YA fiction by Laurie Halse Anderson from the local library, even though I am 48, and 4) listening to the latest by Aravind Adiga on your iPod.”
4. Sit-Next-to-Me-on-the-Plane Award: Bill Baker
“…every book I read I leave on an airplane. I will write on the inside cover, ‘May this give you the enrichment it has given me, when you are finished with it, pass it on’.”
5. Apple for the Teacher Award: Jennifer Blair
“…you and your English teacher get so excited discussing favorite books and stories that you forget the rest of the class is there.”
Levenger gift cards will be making their way to our winners, so we can shamelessly feed your fix with some of our cool reading tools and not-in-the-bookstore books.
As for this thing called book love, I invite all of you to share the love with friends who also might like to finish our sentence. We’ll keep the contest going, in the hopes of reaching an ever-wider circle of smitten readers.
Thoughts? Just click on the Comments link below. (If you’re reading this as an email, click here and you’ll connect to Comments).
... you look for an excuse to send the kids to bed early, so you can start (or finish!) a book you've been waiting to read....
Posted by: tracy | August 31, 2009 at 09:07 PM
I know that I am in book love when I am sad to realize that I have passed the halfway point, or when I put a book down only to pick it up to read "just that scene" "one more time", and end up reading a few pages before ("just for a ramp up") and a few pages after ("for continuity") and a few more on each side until "I've read the whole thing a second time!" And, yes, this does happen.
Posted by: Fred Putnam | August 31, 2009 at 09:12 PM
When I finished The Road, I started again with page 1. I watched the author's interviews with Oprah, and now I continue to wonder if he came through this area of TN on the way to the beach. It changed me forever.
Posted by: Lynne Chandler | August 31, 2009 at 11:16 PM
It is nice to see that others also have a "Well Read Life."
Posted by: J Bradshaw | September 01, 2009 at 08:12 AM
...it's 11:30 p.m. and you know it's going to take an hour or more to finish the book, and you have a critical day tomorrow, and you (I) finish the book anyway!
Posted by: Mark PLackett | September 02, 2009 at 04:01 PM
I just got the email announcing me as a winner, and I'm thrilled!! And yes, Steve, I must admit, I had just been browsing the BookBoxes when...
Posted by: Jean M. Appleton | September 04, 2009 at 04:46 PM
I know I am into a book when I read far into the night and don't care if I will be tired into the morning-I have read over 100 books in the last year and have to put my name in side the cover so I don't read it again-we have a library in our club house and I have a sony e-book that is constantly on charging-I recent ordered a lap book reader with the clip on lamp so I don't disturb my honey-who constantly tells me to turn out the light, it is great-i love it.
Posted by: Marguerite Tuccillo | September 07, 2009 at 11:44 AM
I am in book love when I visit an adult child in another city, start reading a book he/she is reading . . and get so engrossed in it that I "accidentally" take the book with me when I leave. (Of course, I return the book soon as I finish it. . . with many apologies).
Posted by: Ruth Roberson | September 08, 2009 at 08:34 PM
I know I'm in book love when I finish a book with the combination of a passionate desire to tell my dearest friends, along with concern that if they don't like it as much I as did that I might not feel the same about them ever again :-).
Posted by: Elizabeth H. Cottrell | October 12, 2009 at 10:47 PM
You know you are in book love when.....
.....you "have" to go to the bathroom, in order to justify not doing something else, just in order to read some more. And you read so much more that both your legs fall asleep, and you fall over when you stand up! And then, of course, they KNOW what you were doing....
But it doesn't stop me from doing it again!!
Posted by: Nina Aguilar | January 23, 2010 at 12:57 PM