Dougma (dŭg·mə) n.

Bibliophile (bĭb’lē-ə-fīl’) n.

1. a person who loves or collects books, esp. as examples of fine or unusual printing, binding, or the like.
2. A lover of books.
3. A collector of books.

NOTE: The adj. form is bookworm. While ‘bibliophilia’ has recently entered the common vernacular, it is not an accepted form.

I am a self professed bibliophile. It is a trait which appears to be hereditary. As proof I grabbed my cell phone, snapped some pictures, created a new tabblo account for the site, and in under a minute I had something which looks like it took hours. I do love tabblo! I was planning on adding a ‘books’ page to the site this week in celebration of National Library Week. Unfortunately a stomach virus threw all schedules out the window as childhood ailments often do. The Worcester Public Library has a fantastic children’s reading program with music and local artists every Friday morning from 10:30am until noon with a playtime afterwards. Our son picks out ten to twelve books and we end up reading each at least three times over the week. This week is special in that all activities will be accessible to the deaf and hearing impaired.

10:30am Just Drop In Sing-a-long & Storytime
Kids of all ages are invited to. The program will take place in the Children’s Room ‘Ellipse’. Enjoy picture book stories, nursery rhymes, poetry and live music with instruments provided for children. Each week’s program is followed by an optional playtime for which the library provides coloring sheets, book displays library and literacy information for parents and children, toys for play and ambient music. The program is free, for ALL AGES and is open to the public, no registration required, just drop in ! Come early for best seats! Kids can bring their own instruments to help mr. frank play songs! Call the Main Library at 508.799.1671 for details. If the Worcester Public Schools are delayed or cancelled ‘Just Drop In’ our program will be cancelled for that morning.

Libraries and bookstores are sacred grounds to me and librarians are family. There is no better place in the world than an independent used bookstore on a rainy day. Sitting among the stacks, finding hidden treasures and becoming reacquainted with old friends. Books have a life and soul unlike any other media. It is the tactile aspect combined with the infinite expanse of imagination. The mind can conger sights, sounds, sensations and impossibilities which can never occur in the real world or be reproduced by Hollywood (though they try). The written word allows us to tailor the experience, fictional or otherwise, and make it our own. No two people read the same book; the experience is internalized and intimate. When reading you can close out all other stimuli. Even the visual. Your minds eye becomes your perceived sight and reading becomes like breathing; unnoticed and automatic. Film and audio, color and flavor the experience with an external interpretation which is not our own. The external stimuli breaks the spell and ends reverie. Is it any wonder the film is never as good as the book? This is not to say I don’t like movies of find them less entertaining that books, they just do not hold thrall over my like books do. I equally love graphic novels and manga; the experience is different, but no less enjoyable.

At our house we have budgets for everything. I have a complicated system for ‘upgrading’ my computer equipment which consists of me selling equipment on ebay and buying parts from whole sellers to build my own components. The only exceptions to budgetary constraints are books. Literary works are that important. There are books everywhere, in every room. Horizontal surfaces act like magnets for bound pages. Our coffee table does not have those standard ‘coffee table books’ which are decor and never actually read. The books on our coffee table are restless creatures which are snatched up at whenever a quite moment presents its self. Sometimes the house looks like a scene from ‘Read or Die‘.

It was not always that way as I am dyslexic and for the first sixteen years of my life I hated reading, and abhorred spelling. I still cannot spell to save my life, but reading has become like breathing, and collecting unusual works an addiction. I even read allowed; something which used to give me nightmares as a child. Ironically it was my high school Spanish teacher (Mrs. Ortiz) who gave me my first fix. The book was ‘The Unloved‘ by John Saul. Not a book that won any awards, but it struck a chord with the angst ridden teenager I was. From there I devoured the horror genre, moved on to science fiction, cyberpunk, fantasy. I went so far as to get foreign books, and was handed ‘If Only the Dream Trees Could Touch‘ by Hiroyuki Morioka and a fan translation from usenet posted weekly about 10 pages at a time. I was already hooked on Japanese horror, this got me hooked on sci-fi and romance. I have read translations of all Hiroyuki Morioka’s works, and to date the Crest of the Stars series is my all time favorite Science Fiction series by any writer. I am still looking for professional translations of her works, if anyone knows of where I can get them I would be eternally great full. My old dot matrix printouts were not on acid free paper and the white/green alternating lines are now brown and darker brown.