“We watch a reader in a bookshop: he picks up a book, leafs through it—and for a short instant he is entirely cut off from the world. He is listening to someone speaking, whom others cannot hear. He gathers random fragments of phrases. He shuts the book, looks at the cover. Then he often takes a brief glance at the cover flap, hoping for some assistance. At that moment, without realizing it, he is opening an envelope: those few lines, external to the text of the book, are like a letter written to a stranger.”
– Roberto Calasso, The Art of the Publisher
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“‘Where were you just then?’ said Pete, throwing his lighthouse-beam in my direction. The blueness of his eyes and his sudden frank attention still made me jump. He would have made a brilliant hypnotist. ‘Lost in a book?’ I thought, I get lost in real life. Books are where I find myself.”
– Christopher Fowler, Word Monkey
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A book is the start of something.
It can be a brief fling or develop into a long term relationship.
There are many ways in which we are introduced to books.
By a friend.
Online.
A chance meeting in a shop.
Or my favourite – from another book.
However I am introduced, a book becomes an integral part of my life during the reading stage of the relationship.
I look forward to the moment I can pick up the book again and continue the conversation.
There is often a small tinge of loss when I finish the book.
Many books linger in my mind for days, weeks, months and years after.
I visit books to be with myself.
In fact this blog is created as an outlet for all the happy memories enjoyed in the company of books.
Here is my collection of snapshots.
It might inspire you to visit some of the places I have loved.
Conversations With Quotations 