Bookish Memes for Bookworms Cozing Up With a Blanket and Hoarding Hundreds of Books

Giuliana Tiscioni • Writer

Sep 8, 2026 11:00 AM EDT

When was the last time you bought a book and actually read it?

We all love to go to bookstores and browse the shelves for five or six hours in a row. The smell of new books is amazing, almost as good as the smell of old books. It's a wonderful feeling to go inside a bookstore, start to walk around, and suddenly find that book you've been looking for for ages! And what do we do in that situation? We turn to the person who came with us, with the biggest smile on our faces, and say, "I've been looking for this for months; I want to read it so badly!" And then put it back on the shelf without a second thought, just to keep browsing around.

There must be some normal people out there who simply buy the book, but no, not us. We pine after them for weeks, and when we find them, we just let it go. Why? I have absolutely no idea. Because on that same day, we might end up buying some other book, one that looked nice or had good reviews. Or maybe we don't buy a single thing, because if you're like me, you have to plan your shopping at least a week in advance. Unless you're sad or stressed about something, in which case you have free rein to purchase as many books as you want, in the order that you want, without planning a single thing, just to make yourself feel better.

I mean it, I don't know why we leave the books that we want the most, but I think it has a lot to do with the feeling of anticipation. We see them all around social media; our favourite booktokers and bookstagramers talk about it and make it sound like the best thing you will ever read. And what if it's not as good as we expected? We'll be disappointed, lose faith in the people who recommended it, and be upset that we threw away our money. Because even though we love them, books are not exactly a cheap thing, especially if you get the special editions or a complete saga all in one purchase.

So, what we do instead is hold on to the image and the feeling that the book gives. The illusion and aura of enchantment that they spread around. And we keep adding new books to our personal libraries in the meantime. Most of them, we never get to read because our lives are too busy, so they stay there, watching us and laughing at us. I swear, I will get to you one day, Count of Montecristo, but I have to finish college first. While we wait for that to happen, we can start with a few shorter and easier books over there and have this list of memes to keep us company as we read.