#bookcare

Bookplate in LVA copy of: Quesnay de Beaurepaire, Chevalier (Alexandre Marie), 1755-1820. Mémoire, statuts et prospectus, concernant l'Académie des Sciences et Beaux-arts des États-Unis de l'Amérique, établie a Richemond, capitale de la Virginie. Paris : De l'imprimerie de Cailleau, imprimeur de l'Académie de Richemond, 1788

From: Force, Peter, 1790-1868. Tracts and other papers relating principally to the origin, settlement, and progress of the colonies in North America. Washington : Printed by P. Force, 1836-1846

Me: I'm sad.

Him: Why?

Me: I finished my book. Come here, I need to curl up in your lap.

Him: Okay. I'd like that, baby.

Me: Whenever I finish a good book, literally all I want to do is curl up in a ball in your lap with your arms wrapped around me.

Him: When I finish I just sit and think for a while. I think too much and don’t feel enough…

Me: I feel too much and it just kind of hurts, and my mind is trying to wrap around it. I want the comfort of another person who will sit there and hold me and let me just be frozen with emotion for a while.

Him: Well, I'd be glad to.

Me: Well, you'll get to do it plenty once we have our own place.

Him: (happily) Okay.

Me: Just remember when I give you a pathetic look and kind of just barely hold my arms out for a hug, that’s what I want.

Him: Okay, I shall remember.

I think book-care is important. When you’re a steady reader, you tend to invest yourself in the book you’re reading at least half the time without even intending to. It’s important to have someone who will understand that; who when they find you awake at 3a.m. curled up in a ball on the couch, they’ll cover with a blanket and make you hot tea and then pull you onto their lap while you drink it until you’re ready to go to bed. Someone you can call crying, and they first thing they say is, “Are you crying because of your book?” Someone who understands you get lost in books, so when you reach the ending, it’s like the world ending—because the world you were just in ended. Find someone who will do that for you.