Here\’s A Nice One by Alain de Botton on why books are so nice to have along on a long trip.
He says there can be a perverse pleasure in reading against the grain of places where one is travelling; in reading plainly “inappropriate books”.
\”Ever since the invention of the printing press, those who most love books have been prey to a paradoxical thought; that there are far too many books in the world. In secret moments, these book lovers may even look back with nostalgia to that fortunate scroll-and-scribe era when, a little after middle age, educated people with good libraries and not too many pressing engagements could conceivably reach a point when they had read everything.\”
Thanks to Mefi.
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