Great readers, such as I have always been, feel about books the way the Mexican jumping bean feels about the dried seed-vessel he rattles around in. He is so attached to this veritable coffin that when given a chance to escape from it via a tiny window pricked out by a needle, he will not take it (as I found out when I once performed this good office) but will poke his head out, glare at the world, duck back down inside and then with saliva or some other exudate seal up the opening forever. To great readers, one more book is one more brick to their ramparts.
--From Ardyth's memoir Bodies Adjacent
