Today, the UK celebrates World Book Day. This is a bit odd, considering that it’s World Book Day and the rest of the world celebrates on 23 April… It should really be UK Book Day then, but I’m not going to let that little detail bother me. Any excuse to celebrate books, I say!

 As I mentioned a few posts ago: we really, really like books in our house, and we, umm, well, we have one or two lying around. Okay, fine, we have tons and tons of them. They’re everywhere. There’s literally only one room in the house that has no books, and that’s the shower.

On our shelves (and our windowsills, and in little nooks here and there) we have all sorts: mythology, fairy tales, children’s books, young adult fiction, history, biographies, autobiographies, philosophy, fantasy, science-fiction, literary classics, modern fiction, essays … you name it.

Besides the “classic” format, we also own a bunch of audiobooks (I’m a fan of the Dresden Files, read by James Marsters), and I have a Kindle loaded with titles – mostly modern (romantic) fiction.

The kids’ rooms are also packed with books – some they can read or from which they can be read now, some our daughter has read or has had read to her and can’t bear to part with, and some for them to read later when they’re ready for them.

To me books are magic. Between their covers they contain worlds and galaxies, perspectives, ideas, philosophies, life lessons, the chance to be someone, anyone anywhere, just for a few hours. Books are like time travel, teleportation and transformation all rolled into one.

I’m grateful for the various digital formats because we’re running out or wall and shelf space and going digital means I can keep collecting books since all these titles only take up the space of my e-reader, but if I ever make enough money I’m buying or building a house with a library for “real” books: one of those high-ceilinged ones where you can’t see the walls for the floor-to-ceiling shelves. And of course one of those ladders-on-wheels to get to the high-up volumes, and reading tables with reading lights, and high-backed cushy seats that you can crawl into and lounge in for hours.

One day…

For now I’m very happy with our bookcases – they hold a lot of books – and with our new couch arriving any day now, I foresee many happy hours of reading.