I sit up straight and do the first thing a person is supposed to do in an emergency, which is send a text message.

A clerk and a ladder and warm golden light, and then: the right book exactly, at exactly the right time.

I've never listened to an audiobook before, and I have to say it's a totally different experience. When you read a book, the story definitely takes place in your head. When you listen, it seems to happen in a little cloud all around it, like a fuzzy knit cap pulled down over your eyes

Neel takes a sharp breath and I know exactly what it means. It means: I have waited my whole life to walk through a secret passage built into a bookshelf.

Walking the stacks in a library, dragging your fingers across the spines -- it's hard not to feel the presence of sleeping spirits.

... nothing lasts long. We all come to life and gather allies and build empires and die, all in a single moment - maybe a single pulse of some giant processor somewhere.

When every single piece of media you consume is time-shifted, does that mean it's actually you that's time-shifted?