What is the most out-of-the-ordinary or simply-more-than-normal (for you) thing you have done for the love of something? Or more specifically, for the love of the written word? It could have been for reading a book, or for writing something, or for words in any other way.

While the story I relate below is not outrageous by any standards, it somehow stayed in my memory. And I can replay it, complete with images, like those flashbacks in movies.

A Walk in the Wild, Kind Of

It was years ago now; over two decades actually. On the bus ride from college, I had seen the signs for a book exhibition in a park. This specific exhibition excited me. Though I had been in the city for a few years already, I had never seen the Navakarnataka Publications exhibition earlier, and I had fond memories of when they used to hold annual fairs in the little town we lived in before.

I knew my brother would be thrilled too, so we decided to take the bus later that evening from home to the exhibition. Well, the bus service – what can I say about that? While some routes had reliable service, this one was not among those. We waited at the stop for a quarter of an hour or so, and worrying that the exhibition might close, decided to start walking towards it, and stop the bus along the road if we happened to see it. (Yes, we could do that if we gesticulated hard enough for the driver to see us!!)

We stopped at the next stop for a while too, and then continued this – walking to the next stop, waiting – until we ended up walking all the way to the exhibition itself!! The distance was not a problem – it was about 4 kms (or 2.5 miles) away; but time was certainly an issue. We needed lots of it to browse all those wonderful books at the exhibition before they closed for the day. And it was getting later and later as we walked.

I still don’t know why we never thought of hailing an auto-rickshaw (so if you are wondering that yourself at this point, I don’t have an answer!) Maybe we just had so much fun walking and waiting and talking that we just did it…

Finally, we did reach the exhibition with ample time to spare, thankfully. And walked back home, this time, carrying bags of books too. Why did we walk again? Who knows? Maybe we had spent all our cash on the books, and that was certainly before I knew what a credit card was. Even otherwise, we might not have had credit cards (I was in college, and my brother still in high school)

Things Bibliophiles Do For the Love of the Written Word

So that was just one story that I included, simply because of how it persistently stays in my memory. I have certainly done some goofy things once in a while,

• like finding that last copy of a book in the library that I really want to read but realizing I do not have my library card so pushing it a little out of sight until I return with it (duh, did I not realize I could have just asked the librarian to hold it for me); or is this something I wished I had done and invented it purely for this post?
• getting excited about that once in a few months trip to a temple which is an hours drive from home, mainly because a Half Price Books store is located near it… (Note on this: I do enjoy my time at this particular temple simply because of how peaceful it is here; as of our last visit there, we noticed that the HPB store moved to a location further away)
• stating I am not well to go to an outing or a party because I need to finish my current read
• going to the local used bookstore to pick up a book for my teen’s required reading for school and ending up spending an hour (well, more) looking for books for myself. And then realizing they only take cash or checks (oops, I left my checkbook at home, and am short on cash) but I really need these books I picked. So should I say, “sorry, kiddo, share a book with a friend” or search in my purse for quarters, dimes, nickels and even pennies. Truth: I emptied all the change to the last penny and ended up getting all the books home (even the required reading one!) Hats off to those ladies at the bookstore who waited while I counted out all the change (and accepted that)!

And Then The Rest

There is more, but I will give it a rest and list out some of this lists that I found myself nodding my head to, over and over again:

• 20 Problems Only Book Lovers Understand (GoodReads)
• 25 Struggles Only Book Lovers Understand (ThoughtCatalog)
• Signs You’re a Book Lover (PopSugar)

And, these books as well:

Dear reader, what about you? What are those out-of-the-normal or even outrageous things you have done as a bibliophile? Or for the love of the written word, or for any other thing you simply enjoy?