Bookworm is a general name for any insect that is said to bore through books. The insects include beetles, moths, as well as cockroaches and proliferates in libraries, where heat, dust, dirt and poor ventilation offer optimum conditions for them to thrive. The damage to books is actually carried out by the larvae hatched from eggs layed by the insects in book edges, and bookshelf crevices. The larvae, when hatched, burrow into and chew through books in search for food.
The term, Bookworm, is also used to describe a person devoted to reading a lot, excessively and intensively to the extent that the eyes metaphorically bores holes in the book – a voratious reader. An addict. Though the term was originally coined as demeaning and negative reference to persons that are constantly reading, there is a current shift that has replaced the addiction with devotion. That is to say that instead of burrowing and devouring books’ pages, they are devoted to reading and studying.
