Christie loved books… This amusement lightened many heavy hours, peopled the silent house with troops of friends, and, for a time, was the joy of her life. – Louisa May Alcott, “Servant,” Work: A Story of Experience, 1873

If the book is second-hand, I leave all its markings intact, the spoor of previous readers, fellow-travellers who have recorded their passage by means of scribbled comments, a name on the fly-leaf, a bus ticket to mark a certain page. – Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night