Books, there are people who enjoy reading, and people who love books and enjoy reading. The difference is, the person who enjoys reading may be looking for the hottest book on the market, or the most recent release, while the book lover appreciates books simply because they are books.

The book they curl up with does not need to be new or hot off the presses, it may have been written 150 years ago and just to hold it and turn the pages brings a pleasurable feeling. The reading is the icing on the cake.

I started reading Paul Collins’ book Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books, a few days ago, and was quickly reminded about the difference between readers and book lovers. The author loves and possibly understands books. This is not a review, so I am not going into the plot; it is enough to say if you love books, this book will speak to you.

You know you are a book lover when you find yourself going to the public library, the drive is not to own books, but to spend time with them, and walking up and down the aisles with no specific goal in mind.

You take a book off the shelf, look at the front and back covers, open it and peruse a few pages then put it down, never reshelving. I do this about once a month, just spending time with the end result of someone’s energy, creativity and passion.

These books are often ignored by the majority of patrons, but someone needs to handle them now and again, to open their pages and read, if only a few words.

My wife picks up books, written years back, at book sales, usually non-fiction, about life on a farm, in the country or even in an urban centre. She knows that even if the story isn’t electrifying, I enjoy spending some time with a book, which was once the focus of someone’s being. It should not languish on a shelf but be shared.

A book is more than a good read; a book is an adventure, a learning experience, a companion, a peak into another place and time, or a pause from the now and an entrance way into the other place.

Too few people read and even fewer truly appreciate the physical presence of a book; the excitement felt when picking up a book for the first time and pondering the possibilities.