I like to go into bookshops whenever I see them in the streets or pass by one. I enjoy the smells inside bookshops and I enjoy sifting through different books and buying any I find intriguing – I am definitely a book fanatic.
I enjoy buying new books and having new content to read – I also enjoy just looking at the books and studying their covers and how thick they are and so on. It’s fun to see books I’ve never seen before and what kind of covers they have and what sort of stories they tell.
I recently ventured down to Brisbane Bookfest – a weeklong event where Lifeline sells thousands of second-hand books at super low prices for charity. Once wasn’t enough, mind you, and I ended up going twice and getting a massive haul of books and DVDs for a crazy low price.
I find it exciting not only to pick up a massive haul of books and DVDs, but also to get inspiration for my own writing and inspiration for book covers. It’s always intriguing to see how book covers used to be and how they’ve changed over the years and it gives me a lot of inspiration into what I want my book cover to resemble.
Ideas flow freshly when I’m surrounded by books. I’m in my element with books and it stirs my brain and I get so many ideas and inspirations while just wandering through books, touching their covers and reading small snippets. I try to envelop my mind into the books, rather than focus on the multitude of people around me.
It was very busy at the Bookfest, but I found it so worth it. I do suffer with social anxiety, so it wasn’t a breeze to go to the Bookfest, but my love of books and the cheap prices definitely overcame this. I ducked in around the hundreds of people and came out quite exhausted, but very happy.
I picked up HEAPS of books and I’m still sorting through them all and getting them sorted into my bookshelf (I am a bit of an overly-organised person with my bookshelf, I like everything in alphabetical order). It takes a while because I did purchase a ridiculous amount of books and DVDs.
The first picture is from our first day at the Bookfest, and the second photo is a week later from the second day at the Bookfest. My bookshelves are now overflowing with the massive haul of books I received and I am very happy with that.
I have many older books that I picked up that are no longer in print – original Enid Blyton’s and Mark Twain and L.M Montgomery books. All $2.50 each. I had an amazing time there and I definitely recommend charity Bookfests (or whatever you call them) as a good way to get new reading material and cover ideas.
Emilie Turner 