If you're looking for a formal definition, start here. This post is about the signs. The symptoms. The slow realization that you might be...one of us.
A Booktrovert is someone who prefers the company of fictional characters to real people. Not always. Not exclusively. But often enough to notice. Often enough to grieve plot twists harder than actual breakups. Often enough to carry quotes like scars and flip to the last page just to feel something.
Booktroverts aren’t just introverted. They’re narratively aligned. Spiritually structured around story. Chronically affected by subtext.
This is where people get it wrong. Booktroverts aren’t antisocial. They’re precise. They have limited bandwidth for surface-level interaction and prefer emotional depth over social ease.
Booktroverts don’t recharge despite books...they recharge through them.
Fictional characters don’t ghost. They don’t flake. They don’t text you “u up?” and then vanish for 3 weeks. They evolve. They return to their themes. They mean what they say. Real people often just mean...maybe.
It’s not that Booktroverts don’t trust others. It’s that we’ve learned to trust stories more.
Yes, we prefer fictional characters to real people. But not because we’re damaged. Because fictional people are narratively satisfying. They follow arcs. They get better or worse for reasons we can understand. They give us structure in a world that rarely does.
The meme is fine. But it misses the ache. It misses the reverence. It misses what happens when a story loves you back.
This place wasn’t built to sell you something. It was built because the internet needed a cave for people who read weird books and whisper thank you to them. There are no pop-ups. No click funnels. No freebies. Just long scrolls. Quiet pages. Occasional ghosts.
You are welcome here. You always have been. Even if you didn’t know it until now.
If this post made you feel seen, unsettled, or quietly excited...you’re probably a Booktrovert.
Yours in books,
Booktrovert #7