the passions of the bookish

Everyone has their favourite books to be read and re-read. Such things become talismans and love-tokens, even personality indicators, the truly bookish will mate on the strength of a spine. The moderately bookish may be more cautious about splicing together their literary and lubricious endeavors but the passion they feel for certain printed sheets will be as lively as any got between plain. The world of the book is a total book and in a total world we fall in love.

- Jeanette Winterson, "Writer, Reader, Words," pg 25, Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effontery.