"It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind."

When I was younger (7, 8, 9-years-old) I would lock myself in the bathroom with an encyclopedia and read for hours, even if I didn't quite understand what I was reading. Now I find that I have not changed a bit.

(The bathroom has always been a retreat spot for some of my siblings and me, because it is the one room where noone, not even our mother, will bother you.)

This week I've read the M volume. My set of encyclopedias was printed in 1982, making it older than me and a tad bit really out of date.

I learned quite a bit about Dolly Madison ("a fine, portly, buxom dame, who has a smile and a pleasant word for everybody." -Washington Irving), some Canadian Prime Minister dude, and the creation of magnets. I have an odd fascination with magnets.

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“The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.” - Elizabeth Hardwick (July 27th 1917 - December 2nd 2007 ...which would be this past Sunday.)