My relationship with books

I've loved books since I was young. Now, given a good book, I'm willing to forego TV, company, food and sleep.

B used to want me to stop reading as he probably felt that I was trying to live my life based on half-baked, piecemeal theories adopted from all over the shop. There is much truth in that. Hopefully, I have outgrown that habit. Hmm.

But i found a passage in 'Gilead' (by Marilynne Robinson. gosh i'm so in love with this book..) that beautifully summarises my relationship with books.

' But I've developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had enough time to read, and reading more books, by far, than I learned anything useful from, except, of course, that some very tedious gentlemen have written books. This is not a new insight, but the truth of it is something you have to experiencec to fully grasp.

Thank God for them all, and of course, and for that strange interval, which was most of my life, when I read out of loneliness, and when bad company was much better than no company. You can love a bad book for its haplessness or pomposity or gall, if you have that starveling appetite for things human, which I devoutly hope you never will have. 'The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.' There are pleasures to be found where you would never look for them. '