Vellichor (n) The strange wistfulness of used bookstores, which are somehow infused with the passage of time – From John Koenig’s “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.”

Any book lover, I am sure, has opened up an old, used book and fell in love with its yellowed pages and old paper smell. Don’t get me wrong, I also love a brand new book with smooth white pages and crispy sharp corners, where I’m the first one to crack the spine, but something about a used book feels… magical.

Who doesn’t love a book with soft corners from being carried around in a backpack or purse and frayed edges from turning pages? Are there crumbs in the centerfold because someone read it while eating breakfast in the coffee shop? Did someone underline or highlight the beautiful and interesting lines that spoke to them? Did they write notes in the margins while trying to solve the mystery in the story unfolding? Are there dried teardrops among the pages where their favorite character died or because they were trying to find comfort in a book when they had a bad day? Did they leave a bookmark tucked in the middle pages or dog-ear the corners to keep their place?

There are so many books and movies with this theme: Finding an old mysterious book that leads to a grand adventure, whether it is a key or portal to finding a magic world, the missing puzzle piece to solving a mystery, revealing a love story lost in history. I love the romanticism in used books and reading in general.

I recently read “The Echo of Old Books” by Barbara Davis. The character, Ashlyn, finds two books, one written in response to the other. She reads them and sets out to find the people who belong to this tortured love story. What’s interesting about Ashlyn is she can feel peoples’ emotions when she touches books they have read. I haven’t met anyone who can feel emotions by touching a book, but we can learn a lot about our friends or even people we don’t know by taking their book suggestions or reading a book previously owned.

There are so many places we can get our hands on used books. At libraries, many people can check out and read the same book. Yard sales, thrift stores, and book exchanges are all places where we can keep sharing the same stories. I look at my bookshelf and see my favorite books and books I thought I’d give away but ended up loving too much. I remember the books I didn’t love as much and the books I had to give up because the shelf would come crashing down if I didn’t choose any to get rid of.

I take the books I give up to the little book exchanges in town. Take a book, leave a book. There’s one in my favorite coffee shop, one downtown, one in my old neighborhood, one in my new neighborhood, and I always notice them out of town as well. I love that there is an easy way to trade books.

Stories bring people together. That’s why we have book clubs where we meet, drink wine, eat snacks, and chat about our favorite characters. We try to get our friends to read the book we just read so we can ask somebody what they thought about that plot twist. We check in to see if they’ve read the best part. Does it bring them as much joy as it brought you? If it does, you feel a little closer to that friend; you feel like you understand them better. Stories bring people together.

I encourage you to trade a book at your local book exchange. Go to the library even though it’s been three years and you usually buy your books. Borrow that book your friend has been begging you to read. Go back and read that book you loved in junior high, even though you’re in your thirties or forties. There is a different kind of joy when you read an old, used book.

This was written by our contributing writer, Karina Coghlan.