the library at night

"lying open in glass cases, stripped of their surroundings, honoured but unread - less purveyors of words than funerary objects, expelled from their home after his death - books seem to suffer the fate of the spouses and servants of these ancients kings whose households followed their master to the gave"


"even today, when little or no importance is accorded to the intellectual act, books, read or unread, whatever their use or value, are often lent such awe-inspiring prestige"

- Alberto Manguel [legend]