What kind of life can you have in a house without books?

I didn't belongBecause maybe I never wantedTo belong. When everybody else danced and sang, I sat silently in my room with books,Books, and books. I used books for self-defenseAnd as stealth bombers: I am better than youBecause I have read more books than you; I amBeloved by these books; I am beloved by words.

If one reads enough books one has a fighting chance. Or better, one's chances of survival increase with each book one reads.

Corliss wondered what happens to a book that sits unread on a library shelf for thirty years. Can a book rightfully be called a book if it never gets read? If a tree falls in a forest and gets pulped to make paper for a book that never gets read, but there's nobody there to read it, does it make a sound?