If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

by Italo Calvino

It’s not that you expect anything in particular from this particular book. You’re the sort of person who, on principle, no longer expects anything of anything. There are plenty, younger than you or less young, who live in the expectation of extraordinary experiences: from books, from people, from journeys, from events, from what tomorrow has in store. But not you. You know that the best you can expect is to avoid the worst.

Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified.