everything.

now that's a lie

there is something to say

for life experience

that I frequently deny

but with a nod to that

I will tell you

all the pages

have taut

1. you can always turn the page

2. you don't have to finish the book

3. even if you read the end, you'll never understand how you got there without the rest

4. even books recover from rain

5. people treat books the way they treat themselves

an explanation of number five:

I've never been gentle with books

I prefer paperbacks so I bend them in half

I believe in underlining and circling and note-taking and dog-earring and once I had a book that was 1000 pages long so I tore it in half and only carried around 500 pages at a time.

I have written and cut and bruised and picked-at and pinched and scrubbed and prodded and marked my skin into the cover it remains to be seen as

but I have also taped myself back together

so you have to understand

that I have read my insides twelve times over

and each time

I have learned

something new

some will keep the covers on hard covers

some will read a book once and set it down

some will use book-marks instead of store receipts and that's okay

I love those sorts of people

all I'm saying is

watch how people hold their books

because whether they know it

or not

they're holding themselves in their own hands

blood is nothing to be ashamed of

it's just the ink of our novels