“She read books quickly and compulsively, paperback after paperback, as if she might drift away without the anchor of the printed page.”

“Books might be your passion but you can’t fuck a paperback.”

“She wanted to be buried in a coffin filled with used paperbacks. ”

“I think of my pile of old paperbacks, their pages gone wobbly, like they'd once belonged to the sea.”

“You will be interested to hear, Hilary, that it [the drug] had a most remarkable effect — even on Selena after a very modest quantity. She cast off all conventional restraints and devoted herself without shame to the pleasure of the moment." I asked for particulars of this uncharacteristic conduct. "She took from her handbag a paperback edition of Pride and Prejudice and sat on the sofa reading it, declining all offers of conversation.”

“The book she had been reading was under her pillow, pressing its cover against her ear as if to lure her back into its printed pages.”