I grew up with self-proclaimed bibliophiles. I became a bibliophile myself. At least one brother loves books too. Then, a recent word of the day was bibliotaph: a person who caches or hoards books.

Huh? What happened to the word bibliophile? Is this a new term for e-book collectors? What? There must be an explanation, and I earnestly began my investigation. The formal definition of bibliophile: a person who loves or collects books, especially as examples of fine or unusual printing, binding, or the like.

I see the difference. A bibliophile is someone with more discrimination in their collecting. They don’t just hoard for the sake of hoarding like a bibliotaph. They collect 1st editions, illustrated books, church cookbooks, bird books.

Bibliophile visual:

Bibliotaph visual:

Now here is the problem. I am both. I hoard books (now on Kindle) because it makes me feel good. I also like to collect special categories of books, such as  the “Complete Writings of xxxx” or all books by John Muir, Jack London, etc. So, then, what am I?

Bibliotaphophile?

Bibliophiletaph?

Psuedobibliophile?

Taphfantastic book maniac?

Ostentatious?

Stinkin book hoarder?

I am leaning towards the taphfantastic!

So what are you? A Bibliophile? 

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