To know your way round a library is to master the whole of culture, i.e. the whole world.

I prefer the company of books. When I'm reading, I'm never alone, I have a conversation with the book. It can be very intimate. Perhaps you know this feeling yourself? The sense that you're having an intellectual exchange with the author, following his or her train thought and you accompany each other for weeks on end.

That's what sofas are for: sit down, drink a cup of tea, talk of literature. At least that's how I see it.

Book and reader, if they meet up at the right moment, it can make sparks fly, set you alight, change your life. It can, I promise you.