Life is generally something that happens elsewhere.

If I am doing nothing, I like to be doing nothing to some purpose. That is what leisure means.

But then books, as I'm sure you know, seldom prompt a course of action. Books generally just confirm you in what you have, perhaps unwittingly, decided to do already. You go to a book to have your convictions corroborated. A book, as it were, closes the book.

It was the kind of library he had only read about in books.

Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now?

Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories, knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only be remembered for remembering someone else.

I'm all in favour of free expression provided it's kept rigidly under control.