Top Ten Tuesday #257

Hi all! I hope you’ve had a good week since I last did one of these. I’m not going to lie, I’m going ever so slightly stir crazy in lockdown. I have watched some great TV, currently watching the latest series of Outlander, but the fact that I’ve watched almost all of the shows that I missed in South Africa in less than a week, is a little concerning if this lockdown goes on as long as expected!

Anyway, I’m back with another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week, we’re talking Ten Signs You’re A Book Lover, which should be a really fun one to do, though I would like to point out before I start that these are all things I do, and it’s great if they apply to you to, but really, the only prerequisite for loving books, is well….loving books!

1. You have many fancy bookmarks specifically designed for the purpose…..but you usually end up marking your books with anything you can find lying around in your house e.g. old receipts, train tickets, random scraps of paper etc

I do usually manage to use my designated bookmarks, but I would be lying if I said I’d never used a scrap of paper or an old receipt or a train ticket to mark my page because I could not find said bookmark!

2. You never leave the house without a book

Literally wherever I am going, I will have a book on me. On the bus to work? Yup, I take a book. Have a doctor’s appointment? The book is there. Going to meet up with friends? Book. Pretty much wherever I go, I have a book in some form on me, whether it be a physical book or an audiobook, because you never know when you might be left waiting and in need of a book.

3. Your family is constantly telling you that you have too many books

This is obviously not true because you can never have too many books. I like options. But yes, many a book lover has heard from many a family member, “Do you really need more books?”, usually when they receive more book post. The answer to the above question is of course always yes.

4. You do not have enough shelf space for all your books

This might not be true for every book lover, not everyone buys all their books, but it is true for me. I honestly can’t remember the last time all my books fitted on my shelves, for years I have had to double stack, and/or had boxes of books under my shelves because they can’t all fit on them!

5. You are constantly talking about the books you are reading

I mean this is kind of a given. I spend hours and hours talking about the books I read, either with my friends, or online with others in the book community. I love reading books of course, but even more than that, I love talking to people about the books I’m reading!

6. When you go on holiday, you always take slightly more books than you think you’re going to need….running out of books would be a disaster

When I came over to Cape Town, I definitely brought more books than I actually thought I was going to read, because there is nothing worse than going on holiday somewhere and finding out before your holiday is over that you have finished all of your reading material. It’s always better to have more books than to have not enough.

7. You have shelves on Goodreads for books that aren’t coming out for several years

This is maybe more a sign of being a book blogger than someone who reads but doesn’t blog, but it’s definitely been true for me, because I find out more about books that are being released, I usually have shelves for books that aren’t coming out for two or more years, or haven’t even had a release date announced yet!

8. You get excited about meeting your favourite authors

I know not everyone does, and you’re certainly not any less of a book lover if you don’t want to meet your favourite authors, but for me, getting to meet my favourite authors is one of my favourite things about being a reader. Yes, I usually say or do something which makes me cringe, but I do love getting to meet the people behind my favourite books.

9. You stay up far longer than you intend to because you want to read “Just One More Chapter” and before you know it, you’ve finished the book

You know that feeling when you’re reading a really good book, and you just can’t find a point where you’re willing to put it down, so before you know it you’ve finished the entire thing? I use staying up late as an example because I tend to read before bed, but it can happen at any time of day.

10. Your friends and family never know what books to get you, because they have no idea what you haven’t read/don’t own

I’ve been told that apparently I’m really tricky to buy books for, even by my friends, who know my reading taste quite well, just because I own so many books that it’s difficult for them to figure out one that I won’t already have bought myself!

So there we go, my Ten Signs You’re A Book Lover. Have you experienced any of these? What do you think are the signs that you’re a book lover? Let me know in the comments!

I will be back next week with another Top Ten Tuesday, which will be slightly different from the scheduled TTT topic as I wrote these when the topics for April were not yet up, I was obviously expecting to be away slightly longer!  I’m going to be talking about my Top Ten Least Favourite Books, as I shared my Favourite Books way back when, and I thought it would be quite fun to do a ranty post!