Words

Tracing fingers along favorite words in books to commit them to memory and highlighting sentences.

Reading anything and everything you can see, every hoarding, store name, menu, product label.

Writing down new words over and over again just because you like writing the letters it is made up of or just because wanting to write it down is an itch which needs to be scratched.
And then you read his words. And most of them are about you. You want to commit everything to memory and so you read it over and over again. You want to write down everything and keep them some place safe. Here at last is someone who can roll words into such fine joints and the high you get from this is immeasurable.

People before things...

...Except when it comes to books.

I am one of those people who practices "People before things" - things can be replaced but people cannot be replaced.

So, whenever someone breaks or loses any of my things, I don't get angry or mad or feel bad. Nobody is perfect and people make mistakes and all that blah. I usually forgive and forget if my friend loses say my favorite earring. I just say something like "Those were my favorite pair of earrings. But it's okay." She already knows that those are my favorite and she knows what she did was bad and I should not make her feel worse by shouting at her or crying about it and thereby spoiling the mood of two people. I can make some other pair my favorite and move on.

I took a lot of time to get to the point where I am now with this practice as far as having no favorite things. Now, I don't have any favorites, except books. I love my books. I crib and whine if someone wants to borrow my books. If someone borrows my books, I call them up to ask about their progress and whether they liked it or not but the real intention of calling them is to calculate the time they will take to finish it so that I can call them up and remind them to return it. I might be your worst nightmare if you borrow my books, that is the reason I rarely lend them.

If you ever end up with one of my books, first of all, lucky you (or did you flick it without my knowledge ?), second of all, follow these instructions, please.
Treat the book like a person. Don't touch it too much. Don't fold anything (Would you fold a person ? Would you ? Would you ?) Don't stuff it inside your handbag (Please, for the love of God women) Don't lick it.
Don't write anything on it. Don't keep a paper on MY BOOK and write on it. This might leave the imprint of your writing on MY BOOK.
Don't eat or drink while you are reading my book, not even water. When you feel the urge to eat or drink, keep the book down, move 10 meters away from my book. Curb your urges. Wash your hands and dry them. Wash hands again (just to be safe) and dry them thoroughly and then come back and resume reading.
Don't use it as a toy for your baby or dog or cat or chameleon or snake or rat or ants. Because MY BOOK is not a toy.
Don't leave it out in the sun or the rain or in the middle of the desert or the middle of the river (or lake or ocean or sea or pond or puddle).
Don't spill stuff on it, even by accident. Would you spill something on a person by accident ? OMG! You would. You know what, stay away from my book, you are not getting it.
Sigh! I tried.