"We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever."

- Philip Pullman

I've always thought about it that way. Funny I've never voiced it out before.

I love reading not because I'm intellectual. I love it because I'm an escapist. When you have your nose buried in a book, you can actually pretend that nothing else matters in the world except getting to the end of the story. A bit like watching TV. Not too lofty, but that's the truth.

My childhood dream was not to be a teacher, pilot or air stewardess, but to own a bookshop. I wouldn't have to drag myself to and from the library. I would have my own personal collection displayed as 'Not for sale', and I would be the first reader of every book that I sell in the shop. I would stock those hard-to-find titles. Then I would be able to keep reality out of the door, and I would read to live.

Maybe I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed recently, so my childhood instincts are taking over. The dream has been coming back to me, figuratively speaking.

It's been a long time since I'd been so struck by a passage from a book.

Every moment that has passed between Haskell and her is examined and re-examined; every look, gesture, and nuance interpreted and reinterpreted. While she sits at the dining table, or writes letters on the porch, or reads to her mother in her room, Olympia invents dialogue and debate with Haskell and weaves amusing anecdotes for him around the most seemingly banal events of her daily life... But though she repeats the same conversations and scenes over and over in her mind, she cannot exhaust them... Occasionally, her relentless scrutiny of the brief time she has spent in Haskell's presence is an agony to her, for she can see no satisfactory conclusion to what has begun, nor any possible way at all to go forward.

From Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve

Have you caught I, Robot? It reminds me of George Orwell's Animal Farm, only that instead of pigs, it's robots.

Humans keep dreaming up stories about other species trying to dominate them. Personally, I think it stems from an insecurity complex. Somehow, even with all that we have achieved as the dominant species, deep down there is still fear that a better species is out there.

Remind me to tell you about The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.

Have you seen this wizard?

I'm still ploughing through the 20-odd books I dragged back from a warehouse sale. Good stuff. Had to restrain myself from bringing back a whole carload. Currently on to my 4th book. My dream of building a library is another tiny step to being fulfilled. Next to arrange them by author in alphabetical order, then barcode them :)