Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Signs that You are a Book Lover

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is top ten signs that you are a book lover. Remember: whether you can check off everything on my list, or only a few, it doesn’t change whether or not you are a book lover! Here’s my list:

You have a list of auto-buy authors.

Anyone who loves books also loves the authors who write them. In the bookish community, I always sees posts and videos where people rank books by their favorite authors or say what authors they will automatically buy whenever they release a book. Some of my auto-buy authors are Kasie West and Morgan Matson.

You have a favorite type of book.

There are so many different ways to read books: paperbacks, hardbacks, audio, or electronic copies. If you are a book lover, you have probably debated with another book lover about what you like best. While I’m not especially particularly about editions, some book lovers will even buy different editions of the same book until all the books in a series match.

You own at least one piece of (somewhat embarrassing) book merchandise.

The Hunger Games movies released in high school and that is probably the only major series that I got swept up in the hype. I dressed as Katniss for Halloween (with a homemade Mockingjay pin since merchandise wasn’t released yet). I had a Hunger Games poster on my bedroom door. I bought several nail polishes that represented my favorite districts. I wore a Hunger Games shirt to the movie premiere. I even had a blanket with character’s faces on it, a puzzle, and a board game. Every book lover has that book that they love and want everything that has to do with it.

You have a specific way that you like to keep your bookshelf.

Many book lovers dreamed of having a library like Belle in Beauty and the Beast which has translated to dozens of Instagram and Pinterest-worthy bookshelves all over the internet. Whether your bookshelf looks like a work of art or your books are just stacked in a corner on the floor, everyone has a preference on how they keep their books.

For me, I have what I call a “modified rainbow.” I sort my books by color, but they don’t necessarily follow Roy G. Biv. On the top shelf, I keep all of my pastel colored books. On my second shelf, my books range from yellow to orange to red. On my third shelf, the books turned from green to purple to blue. The next shelf contains all of my silver, gray, and brown books. The bottom shelf contains any black or navy books.

You decorate your bookshelf (bonus points if it is with that embarrassing merchandise you thought of earlier).

Along with the previous point, many book lovers don’t stop with putting books on their shelves. Often times, they decorate their bookshelf with merchandise that represents their favorite novels. For me, my shelves contain a mix of Funko pops, Tsum Tsum plushes, and other various decorations.

You can think of at least ten book recommendations to give to a friend (or a random stranger).

A book lover just doesn’t read books, but they learn about a lot of books even if they aren’t interested. If someone has a different preference for books than me, I can still give them a lot of recommendations based on what people with similar preferences enjoy.

You have tried to convince a friend to read your favorite series.

If you love books, most likely you want other people to love them. Sometimes that means pestering your friends and family until they decide to pick up your favorite read.

You have a favorite way of reading.

Whether you like reading on a Kindle, an audiobook, or a hard copy, everyone has their favorite way to read. You may even like a mix of all three!

You can understand why someone else likes a book, even if you didn’t like it.

A book lover knows that they may not always love a book, but someone else will. For me, even if I don’t like a story, I try to think of why someone else might like it so I could recommend it to the person that would be a perfect fit. Even though you will defend your favorite book, a book lover will never put down someone else for their opinion.

You read lists on Goodreads for books that will be released two years from now.

If you love books, you are always looking for more books to read… even if those books aren’t released yet. One of my favorite things to do on Goodreads is to scour reading lists for books to be published in the future. It makes me so happy when I see my favorite authors coming out with new books!

What are signs of a book lover to you?