The Bliss with Books

Back and forth from my desk to my shelves, ten, twenty, thirty times a day. The sources swirl around me. I am  drugged by books. The sweet savor rises from the pages. A delirium of…

Isn’t This the Truth?

It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, a book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met.  —Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness, translated by…

Books

I’m discussing Svetlana’s Alexievich’s Secondhand Time with Lori Hirst and Helen Houlle later today. One of the fascinating threads in this oral history is the emphasis on books in Soviet culture…   My mother wasn’t alone,…

Books

I’m discussing Svetlana’s Alexievich’s Secondhand Time with Lori Hirst and Helen Houlle later today. One of the fascinating threads in this oral history is the emphasis on books in Soviet culture…   My mother wasn’t alone,…