Remus Lupin Reading Headcanons

Remus Lupin Reading Headcanons

We’ve got the obligatory classics: Wuthering Heights, The Picture of Dorian Gray, at least one Shakespeare (Twelfth Night is there, I get a vibe, no I will not elaborate) and a fair bit of Austen (though he prefers the Brontë sisters).

These are the books that he’s been gifted, and there are some really nice copies from friends that would have cost a lot.

He has books on Egyptian history: Library of Alexandria, the many Pharaohs, massive books on specific Gods, gruesome books about the embalming technique (you can bet for at least a year Remus would threaten to embalm people like the Egyptians and they were half scared he would)

There are so many old poetry books he picked up for 50p in charity shops and second hand bookstores (but not the fancy ones, because who can afford that?), with all his annotations in. 

These annotations range from detailed analysis of the use of iambic pentameter to little notes just saying ‘savage’. 

And of course he uses random notations nobody else can understand, because it’s faster to write. 

He’s also got loads of travel books

Half the ones aren’t even for places he wants to go, but he saw the book and had to get it, because that’s what he does

He’ll flick through it, make note of the most interesting places, and then keep it on his bookshelf forever (f o r e v e r)

He never throws books away

He’ll lend them out to his friends, lose them and then forget they exist, put them in his bag and then just leave them at the bottom next to old papers, make nonsensical piles of books all over the dormitory which he’ll never touch, and so many other things

But he will never, ever, ever get rid of any of his books. 

He also never buys books new

They’re too expensive (especially in hardback) and he likes the character of a book with pages falling out and marks from previous owners (although usually it’s just food stains rather than witty notes)

He’s also got a weird system about books that nobody except him understands (people genuinely think that he’s making up half his rules when they borrow his books)

Like, he folds the pages and writes in the books in pencil, but if anyone dares bring a pen or highlighter near his books there’s a chance they’ll be murdered brutally

And you can read books in the bath/shower (since water dries) but you can’t eat messy food with books (because tomato sauce stains don’t wash out)

If the cover starts peeling off naturally (it happens, especially when you throw books at people, which he does) then it’s fine, but if someone defaces the cover (or just rips it) then, again, prepare for death

And then between the poetry and travel books we have trashy novels

And these are the kind of things that he’ll read when he’s too tired to think properly

He doesn’t read them for the intellectual stimulation, just for enjoyment, but as soon as anyone starts slagging people off for exclusively reading these kinds of books, he’ll fight them

He’s against book shaming (as we all should be) and will slap a bitch to defend someone’s reading honour (is that a thing? we’re going with it)

Anyway, after the one-time-read novels, we have the notebooks

He keeps notebooks on his bookshelf, because that way he can at least find them

(Except his journal and poetry notebooks, which he hides)

He’s got notebooks for language learning, since I firmly believe he’s a linguistic superstar, and they have his notes and practice sentences

And then there are just filled up notebooks, where he’s written to-do lists and played games of hangman

Of course, he doesn’t throw these away either, and he has quite a collection building up

In fact, he has so many books in general that they’re everywhere

We’re talking a completely filled bookshelf, a pile of books next to his bed, a pile for his To Be Read Soon books, a pile for his I Swear I’ll Read Them Eventually books, a pile for his I Need To Read Them Again books, a pile for the books he wants to lend to people but keeps forgetting, a pile for the books that he wants to find a specific quote or paragraph in, a pile for his books that he has yet to sort, and a pile for the books that he just throws down as soon as he walks in the room

He has a reputable library building

And this kind of irritates other people, because they can’t walk around without tripping over a pile of books, but they don’t mind too much because he’s just so passionate about them that they feel bad complaining

And anyway, when they eventually mention that they’re in a bit of a reading slump, he’ll immediately run off and come back with five or six books that they’d like

When they thank him he’ll just mumble and walk off, but he actually loves choosing books for people

And when they come back to him and say that they thought the book was amazing, he basically dies

He considers being a librarian for a bit, but then he realises he’d also have to deal with the defaced books, so decides against it

He’s still known as the informal librarian, anyway, and people always respect his book rules, so he doesn’t have to kill anyone for ruining the front covers or highlighting sections

Sometimes people will give him more books as thank you gifts for recommending them all books, and it’s genuinely the biggest compliment he could be given.