Contents
Preface. Or, finding solace in pages
1. Handwritten dedications in old books
2. Visiting someone’s home and inspecting the bookshelves
6. When the lovers get together
8. Blotches, stains and other reminders of where and when you read a book
10. Hiding yet more purchases from partners
13. Reading a travel book about somewhere you’ll never visit
14. Feeling bereft having finished a book
16. Losing an afternoon organising bookshelves
17. When a novel makes you snivel
18. Not ‘getting’ a book people rave about
19. When film and TV adaptations get it right
20. Smells of books, old or new
21. Feverishly awaiting the next book in a series
22. Hurting with laughter as you read
25. Discovering an author with a back catalogue to catch up on
26. Watching a child learn to read
27. Re-reading an old favourite
28. When the plot clicks into place
29. Buying a luxury volume that doesn’t fit on a shelf
32. Spying on what others are reading
33. Chaotic book rooms and enthusiastic owners trying to find something for you
34. Enthusing to someone about a book
37. Reading on public transport
39. Moving in with somebody and finding doubles
40. Giving a book as a present
41. The calm a room of books brings
42. Pretending to have read something you should have
43. Hotel, B&B and cottage ‘libraries’
44. Squeezing a book onto the shelf
45. Choosing and anticipating holiday reading
46. Letting poetry tingle your spine
47. Remembering a book from childhood
48. Getting waylaid looking at a dictionary
49. Feeling a book is intimately for you
50. Finishing a book, putting it down, and thinking about it