In A Library, No Empty Shelf Remains

In Every Literate Society, Learning To Read Is Something Of An Initiation, A Ritualized Passage Out Of A State Of Dependency And Rudimentary Communication.

This Morning I Looked At The Books On My Shelves And Thought That They Have No Knowledge Of My Existence. They Come To Life Because I Open Them And Turn Their Pages, And Yet They Don't Know That I Am Their Reader.

The American Psychologist Julian Jaynes, In A Controversial Study On The Origin Of Consciousness, Argued That The Bicameral Mind - In Which One Of The Hemispheres Becomes Specialized In Silent Reading - Is A Late Development In Humankind's Evolution, And That The Process By Which This Function Develops Is Still Changing.

I've Never Really Understood Attachment To A Place For Reasons Of Birth. That My Mother Happened To Give Birth To Me In A Certain Place Doesn't, To My Mind, Justify Any Thankfulness Towards That Place. It Could Have Been Anywhere.

I Enjoyed Learning The Poems, But I Didn't Understand Of What Use They Might Possibly Be. ‘they'll Keep You Company On The Day You Have No Books To Read,' My Teacher Said.