Found in a Bookshop

by Stephanie Butland

You know that somewhere in this place is a book that can give you what you are craving.

You know that books are safety and escape and wisdom and peace and the things that get you through.

I can’t sleep. So I read. Where are the books that will make me feel surrounded, befriended, rather than as though I am the only person awake in the whole dark world?

Not if you don’t know what you need, especially when the ache for a new book feels both trivial and privileged: when, if what to read is your only worry, then you shouldn’t be worried at all.