Searching for a new book can be a struggle for an avid reader. Countless summaries are skimmed. Stacks are created only to be narrowed down by process of elimination. Mental lists are compiled and promises to come back for a book are sometimes forgotten. The process may be tiring, but nothing compares to the hunt for a book to escape into. There are plenty of categories that books can be broken down into some basic categories are the subject, genre, or even popularity of a book. The truest way books can be separated is by the condition in which a book is being bought. A reader at a store is faced with the same book on a shelf, but one has been well-loved, while the other is freshly shelved. Although the contents of the book are identical, the visage of a book can be the main deciding factor of which will be purchased.

Before either book is opened there is already a noticeable difference between the two, and that is the binding. For a well-worn book, thin yellow cracks streamline the edges and cut across the middle. It is extremely flexible from being opened, closed, and even bent backwards from multiple readings. For a hardcover book there is space between the cover and the pages where the glue could not hold it together. On the contrary, in a newly purchased book, the binding is as rigid as the shelves it was pulled from. The title and the author can be read without hassle. If the book was to be opened and left unattended, the pages would fall back together, fluttering softly as the pages fall one on top of the other. Most readers will not harshly judge the impurities of an older book, because they comprehend that the book has been loved by another before them, yet they still appreciate the beauty of a recently produced book.
The next noticeable feature is that each has a distinctive smell trapped within their pages. The well-worn book retains the memories of the one’s who came before through the fragrances it holds in its binding depending on where the reader goes with it. If a reader spends their Sunday morning hours in a coffee shop listening to jazz and sipping a latte while thumbing through their favorite contemporary issue novel, the pages may smell faintly of ground coffee. A reader who is addicted to cigarettes may have one dangling from their fingers as they peruse the pages of their favorite Ernest Hemingway novel. Whenever they exhale, the pages will soak up the smell of ash from the grey cloud. However, when a reader inhales the scent of a book freshly plucked from a shelf, the crisp smell of ink will calm the reader in the most peculiar way. An avid reader will revel in the pungent smell because the familiarity of fresh ink reminds them that there is another world trapped in the ink. The smell is like a call home after a humid August evening spent with friends. Both smells are incomparably beautiful and can seduce the reader into lengthy nights hidden beneath blankets, allowing their own odor to invade the pages.

The pages are also a telltale sign of a newer novel versus an older one. For instance, in a well-loved novel the color of the pages may have turned golden from sunbathing with its owner. The top corners of the pages may be creased if a courageous reader is willing to sacrifice the purity of the book for the sake of keeping their place. There may be blotted ink or small rings of splattered water where the author made the reader feel too much all at once. In a new book, each page is a subtle milky white, like a newborn child, innocent and pure. The pages await their first reader with a font that boldly protrudes from the pages screaming read me, I want to become your new favorite.

Finally, one of the most obvious distinctions between the two is the way the reader reacts while reading the novel. A well-loved book will have a reader who shakes with anticipation at the turn of every page. They may read slower than normal, attempting to soak up every word, the smaller details of the novel rather than the key plot events. During the start of the novel an outside observer may watch the reader tilt their head back, with wide eyes, and a barely audible “oh” will escape their lips as they pick up the foreshadowing or irony the author delicately placed. Unlike the reader with their favorite book in hand, a reader caressing a new novel’s reactions are pointedly distinct. Their eyes will skim the pages, a placid expression on the exterior, but the ravenous hunger is evident in the gleam of their eyes. They devour words with haste and may react suddenly to an event. They may even thumb backward some pages to reinforce what just happened because they were too in shock to process it. The reader with a new novel is always the one seen crying in public because they were blindsided by the author’s cruel twist in the plot. The reactions may seem similar, but it takes the trained eye of another reader to detect the contrasting reactions.
Choosing a novel all comes down to the preference of the reader. If they do not mind handling the pages another has poured their love into and are willing to contribute to that love themselves, the reader will choose the worn book. If they want a fresh slate and wish to blaze their own trail of wonderful blemishes, then they will leave the bookstore with a novel in pristine condition tucked under their arm. Neither is the worse choice, because in the end they all end up the same way.