Who are you? She asked silently, as she laid away the collector's quotations, his drawings, his scraps of famous poetry: Come live with me and be my love... interleaved with menus: 'oysters, fish stew...
To make a tarte of strawberyes, wrote Margaret Parker in 1551, take and strayne theym with the yolkes of four eggs, and a little whyte breade grated, then season it up with suger and swete butter and...
It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.
Old books exert a strange fascination for me -- their smell, their feel, their history; wondering who might have owned them, how they lived, what they felt.
I jealously guard my research time and I love fully immersing myself in those dusty old books and papers. It's one of the most enjoyable parts of my job.