One of the books I took on my recent trip to Argentina was James Salter's Dusk, reissued last year in a gorgeous, slim, and (key!) lightweight hardback edition. As I sat in a cafe reading it — sans glare from glass screen, sans whirring of battery, sans radiating heat — I was so happy to come across this line:
Man was very fortunate to have invented the book. Without it, the past would completely vanish, and we would be left with nothing, we would be naked on earth.
