Smitten
A love story
I’m having an affair.
Actually it’s been going on for decades.
I’m in love with books. And reading.
Words, glorious words, gathered and pieced together in a riot of colour, shape and texture have had the power to transport me into imaginary worlds and diverse lives since my father told me that very first story. I don’t remember the details now, but I do recall his gentle voice, the glint of excitement in his dark brown eyes and the warmth of his arm wrapped around my tiny shoulders as he created magic from nothing but words.
From listening, eyes wide, to reading, mind bursting, and now to writing stories of my own, it’s been a lifelong love affair. For this reason, you will understand why I had to share today’s post with tantalizing tidbits and fascinating news about books.
Are you at all like me? When you get a book, do you open it and raise it to your nose as if testing a good wine? I adore the smell of books, and yes, that’s the first thing I do. I recently discovered there is a name for the smell of old books – bibliosma. It’s the smell created as the organic compounds in the paper break down. Hints of vanilla, almond and grass (sounds like a wine label, doesn’t it?) are released as lignin in wood pulp paper degrades. I wonder what the crisp aroma of new books is called.
And did you know that the first novel was written by a woman? The Tale of Genji was written by a Japanese noblewoman, Murasaki Shikibu, around the year 1000. It predates European novels by several centuries and its character development and psychological depth is said to rival contemporary fiction.
Here’s some recent news that delighted my inner reader. At the Calgary Reads Big Book Sale in May, over 200 books that had been banned by the Alberta government in school libraries sold out over the first weekend.
Meanwhile, in New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani added $31.7 million in funding to restore library funding in Queens, Brooklyn and New York library systems. This counters previous cuts to library funding and guarantees continuous branch services.
Do you have any good news stories about books and library services where you are? How has reading had an impact on your life, and what book are you currently reading?
I’d love to hear from you.
P.S. In other book news, Arcana Poetry Press selected one of my poems, “Truth”, for publication in their anthology, Smitten with the Written (June 2026). I grew up reading A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, so having my own poetry published feels like a full-circle moment.
I spent the better part of my life as an avid reader. Especially in my teen years. I have so many great memories of laying in my parents hammock and reading away. I would read well past my bedtime, every second of every car ride, you name it. I read novels galore and an absolute ton of history books. Then sometime in my 30’s my reading fell off a cliff. Screens slowly replaced the time I used to spend reading books. For a long time I kept reading avidly, on my electronic devices and to this day I have many great books on my phone I could turn to. But I rarely do so. Eventually, lamenting the loss of books from my life I turned to audio books and it has been so great. No, it’s not the same experience as reading a book, but audiobooks have magical qualities all their own. A great narrator can do wonders and some books are a full on radio play type experiences with a diverse cast. But the most meaningful thing is that audiobooks have me back in a place where I am consuming books in copious quantities again. And for that I am profoundly thankful.
Julie, this is wonderful! I have been smitten with books all of my life, as well, and I am glad my son has been, too. It helped that we home-schooled. I've had a copy of "A Child's Garden of Verses" for as long as I can remember, and of course it was part of our home (un)-schooling "curriculum" (😆).