Found in a Bookshop

by Stephanie Butland

To a book lover, a bookshop is not a place in the world, but a world in itself.

You know that books are safety and escape and wisdom and peace and the things that get you through. Whether they are showing you the best way to prepare mushroom soup, or breaking your heart with someone else’s loss so you can better bear your own, or making you laugh when there is nothing funny in your life, or making you afraid so that real life seems less fearful. You understand.

most mothers arrive with the things that their children need to be comfortable, even if they themselves have nothing.

In a frightened state, familiarity can matter more than safety.

Persuasion, by Jane Austen, my favourite book of all time.

We know the power of a book. Let’s not forget the power of a letter. It’s doing the same thing as our beloved books, only in a more specific way. It is taking feelings, knowledge, requests and hopes, and transferring them to paper. And then that paper conveys the feelings, knowledge, requests and hopes, and unfolds them in front of someone else. No wonder people who love books also love letters.