
“We don't read books in the same way sitting inside a circle or inside a square, in a room with a low ceiling or in one with high rafters. And the mental atmosphere we create in the act of reading, the imaginary space we construct when we lose ourselves in the pages of a book, is confirmed or refuted by the physical space of the library, and is affected by the distance of the shelves, the crowding or paucity of books, ⤵️
I had never thought about it this way, but YES. I am loving the way Manguel talks about the experience of reading and collecting books. And I‘m loving the gorgeous pictures throughout! These are of the King's Library in Buckingham House in London and the “semi-cylindrical ceiling of the Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona.” 😍 3d