Does this make me a 'Booktrovert'..?

I will let you in on a little secret, reader – I think people are overrated.

That opinion, by the way is mine and mine alone – feel free to disagree and think I am awful. It is not that I wish anyone harm or bad thoughts or anything dreadfully mean like that, I just do not really want them anywhere near me. People can hurt you intentionally or not, people can be abusive and people can let you down, however there is safety in a sentence and I have no problem saying that I have never felt that sort of safety from another person before.

Books, just like people can cause a wide range of emotions – sadness, anger, happiness, fear, joy – but the main difference between the two is that books provide a safe space, a space away from the constant overwhelming chatter of the real world. I think some people in the past have incorrectly labelled me as ‘lonely’, but in reality I never felt alone when reading. In actual fact I would cling to the characters like they were my peers, my friends, and ‘my tribe’ if you like such terminology, reader.

After a previous traumatic time in my life, books made me feel safe in my body again, after one person made me feel wholly unsafe in it.

Books are reliable which I value up to the moon.

Books act as a reminder to me that there are still many more pages left of my own story.

So yes, people I can give or take and that thought does not bother me at all really – but books? Never.

As Ernest Hemingway said ‘There is no friend as loyal as a book’.