Overdue (The Library Trilogy, #1.5)

by Mark Lawrence

“When you sell someone a book you give them ownership of something without it being taken away from anyone else. You give them a ticket for a voyage. A door to other worlds.

People walk out of here not truly knowing what they’re carrying with them. They used to put locks on books. Did you know that? Individual locks. I don’t approve of that, but I like the symbolism. You still need a key to open a book. I’m not talking about turning the cover here – to open the story, you need a key, and you are the key. Perhaps you won’t fit. Perhaps you will and the story will open for you.”

He went to the shelf and laid white fingers on the nearest volume. “Each of them is a piece of magic. At least for someone.”

“I wrote a book.” He left unvoiced that he had opened himself to the world, bled upon the page, and gone unnoticed, his words whispered into an uncaring wind.

“I wanted to have said something that was heard. To have been seen and to have had that make a difference to someone.”