bookworm

/ˈbʊk.wɜːm/

Etymology

From book + worm.

Why this word is great

BOOKWORM — [Noun] A person devoted to reading or, literally, an insect that feeds on the bindings and pages of books. From book (a written or printed work) + worm (an insect or a term for a contemptible person), the term carries a double helix of meaning—both the solitary reader hunched in a corner and the silent, nibbling destroyer of texts. Unlike "bibliophile" (who cherishes books as artifacts) or "scholar" (who reads with purpose), the bookworm reads with the indiscriminate hunger of larvae in paper. It is the child under the covers with a flashlight, the silverfish tunneling through a first edition, the midnight reader who forgets to eat—proof that devotion and decay are two sides of the same page.

noun

  1. Any of various insects that infest books.
  2. An avid book reader.““This,” remarked the sedate observer beside me, “is a bookworm,—one of those men who are born to gnaw dead thoughts. His clothes, you see, are covered with the dust of libraries.”