Do Bookworms Prefer Pulp Fiction?

The other day, while dusting, I stopped to open some of my favourite old books. As always, I was fascinated by the tiny tunnels in the pages created by voracious bookworms a long time ago. I decided this might be just yucky enough to share with my grandson the next time he came to visit.

He had heard of bookworms, but he thought they were people who liked to read. I handed him my #708 copy of Little Orphan Annie; The Big Little Book. I told him that the ravenous larvae of a particular type of beetle, which feeds on paper and glue, drilled the small holes in the stacked pages of the closed book. These beetles had devoured parts of this book years ago in his great-great grandmother’s veranda. Opening the book revealed long worm-shaped tunnels reaching the print. As we talked, I gathered a few more violated books. My grandson was interested and spent several minutes looking through the collection.

While he flipped through pages, I noticed that the bookworms had feasted on several novels from the True Stories Series, two Big Little Books, a few Ladies Home Journals, and one old Shirley Temple book. Completely untouched, but from the same home, were bibles, dictionaries, and a copy of Shakespeare’s works. It seemed like the larvae preferred less cultural material. Maybe the cheaper paper and glue were tastier.

Thinking back to my grandmother’s home, I realized that she stored less-important books out in the veranda while more treasured books had a place of honour in the drawing-room, away from beetles and larvae.

Meanwhile, Orphan Annie has been to “show and tell” with my grandson. The dreaded book-eating worms, from a time long ago, have impressed another generation.