From "Guards! Guards!" by Terry Pratchett:
"The truth is that even big collections of ordinary books distort space, as can readily be proved by anyone who has been around a really old-fashioned second-hand bookshop, one of those that look as though they were designed by M. Escher* on a bad day and has more staircases than storeys and those rows of shelves which end in little doors that are surely too small for a full-sized human to enter. The relevant equation is: Knowledge=power=energy=matter=mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read."
"Relativity" by M. Escher
4 Comments:
Hmmm... Might explain a few things about my work days.
Cute! I have always liked Escher's prints. Maybe that says a lot about my life. I am going to use your quote when people come over & all my books are just piled everywhere from now on. Thank yoU!
My parents opened a used bookstore when I was about 7. They eventually branched out into new books and had to move into a new building. In that new building, the used books were housed in the basement, and that's also where we lived. We could get to our apartment through a hallway door or, better yet, through a small door that looked too small for normal-sized people, between the bookshelves. It was actually just an alternate exit for my parents' bedroom on the other side since their room had no windows.
Once I was in high school, we moved to a house a few miles away from the store. One night after closing, my parents got a phonecall from a young man, high-school aged, who was "trapped" in the used books. He had been in the basement when the store closed and hadn't noticed right away that he was alone and the lights upstairs were all out. My parents laughed and went to let him out. When his mother asked him why he hadn't called sooner, he told her he was enjoying himself and saw no reason to rush out. I suppose, for a few hours anyway, it was a black hole.
Now I definitely need to read more Terry Pratchett. I'm reading "Good Omens" right now.
Truth be told - I could easily and happily either try to create that Black Hole or spend all my days in it. Great quote!
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