Oh, I Loved That Book!

I love books, and I love talking about books. There are times when I see someone reading a book and I want to stop them--a complete stranger, mind you, and gush about how much I loved the book they're reading, but I don't usually. I hate spoilers, and I wouldn't want to ruin the book in some minor way for that person. So I have mixed feelings about reading in public. I don't want someone to ruin the book for me in any way, like when I was reading one of the Harry Potter books at about 12:30 in the morning of its release and someone walked by and said, "Oh, I heard so-and-so dies in this one." WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!? unless you're some sort of sadist. I mean, come on. So that's an obvious breach of etiquette...but the seemingly harmless "oh, I loved that book!" gush can be just as annoying. There are some books where if you'd really read the book you just would not do that. Instead, knowing how traumatic the book was for you, how treacherous some books can be just to reach the climax and ultimately the finale with your heart still in one piece...you wouldn't be so exuberant and bouncy with words like "love". You would gently lay a hand on their forearm or maybe their shoulder and look deep into their eyes with strength and understanding and maybe not say anything at all. Just nod in understanding. Maybe your eyes would tear up a little. But you have to be careful with that. The reader might be just at that breaking point and the teary eyes might push them over the edge and you might have to sit there with them for a moment as they grab hold of you in a bear hug and sob uncontrollably. And you'll know because you'd been there before.