yes, WO'N, there is something special about books, and the worlds they take us too.. far away from the mundane, or worse, world we might inhabit.
i remember lying in summer sands, reading the last 100 pages of Wuthering Heights, that summer between grade school and HS. the white sands and cool ocean breezes, the broad Atlanic gone, as i climbed up the rocky craigs over the heather, looking for Heathcliff!
and that fall reading great expectations.-- and later that year, Jane Eyre.
oh, the sheer luxury of having a library in your own house, even if you are a poor cousin, and a window to sit in, and read. less than 10 years later, when i was married, and we bought an old (victorian house) with a bay window.. that sagged, and leaked, and that i insistened be repaired, not torn off, and replaces with a modern bow window.. and after all the work was done, i had a quiet window to sit in, with a small window seat, and the rest of the room was fitted up as a library. the old fire place had long before been boarded up, and the old chimney now was used by the gas fired boiler, but i embroidered a fancy screen in crewel work to hide that fact.
we had to add a lolly column under the beam in the basement to support the wall with the bookcases.. but what a room! i felt for the first time in my life, like i had a place i belonged, that was mine. i felt rich! to have a room as library, and all the books to fill it, and window seat to sit in and read. what more could one ask for, or want in the world.
and i had money too, not a lot, but enough that i could buy a book if i wanted to. not a paperback, but a real book..
and a dictionary! and not just any dictionary, but the OED!its way to heavy to pull into your lap and just read, but what a joy! a complete dictionary! words, nestled like jewels in the a dark blue case.
i read gluttonously, devouring words.. a book needs to be swallowed whole, and then, read again, in sweet, indulgent leisure, each word, slowly being touched, examined, and taken in, like a small rich chocolate bonbon, held, and allowed to melt slowly melt, till it releases it's flavor and texture. it is smooth and sweet? yes, that's nice.. but, this word, is rough, and acrid, and almost unpleasant, but for the contrast.. or does it suprise you, with hidden depths of meaning? or a sudden sharpness? what joy, first to read the story, whole, then to read the words, seperate, and yet connected to the whole.
