/lit/ - Literature

Sometimes
some books
when you hold them between your hands
they almost have a pulse
each word a heartbeat pumping life between the pages

They are pieces of a universe that exists somewhere else
you've never seen it
yet you know when you meet it
you simply know
firmly
surely
and a little bit excitedly
you know that these books
are made out of stardust of the same star
scattered between worlds

Discovering them is like a piece of miracle
cutting time and space in two
whispering a secret

Life, memory
are hardly linear

Some books make you live twice, thrice
countless times
not because you read them again
but because
they are so full of life
life is so densely packed in them
life is dripping from the ink into your fingers
so reading them is like a blood transfusion
is like topping up on oxygen
is like a supernova the size of your palm.

Some books exist in other books
like lives exist in other lives
and stories inside other stories
like embroidery
stitch inside another stitch
and there is affection in this pattern
there is love
and a kind of thirst too
surely
you'll notice it

Some books talk not about the stars and the skies
but talk in the language of the stars and skies themselves
they become an origami firmament
the Milky Way their spinal cord

Some books have been kissed by time
they age so wonderfully
like the year
blessed with the beauty of alternate seasons

Some books
the moment you finish them
they make you have a single wish

Go back to the beginning and start over

This is one of those books.

If I had to choose one book to convince a skeptical English professor of the power of speculative fiction, this would be it. John Crowley has spectacular talent, no question, but in some of his work it's wasted on aimless new-age musings while the story goes slowly nowhere. Not so here. Engine Summer is stuffed with ideas and themes enough to fuel a book five times as long, but they are all in service to the protagonist's story and what it says about human nature and human needs. I've never read a book simultaneously this smart and this readable. If you are looking to see what a genre grand master can do with a couple hundred pages, read this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_Summer