Bookish quotation 3 for deckchair competition

Roddy Doyle:

"I knew all the books in the house. I knew their shapes and smells. I knew what pages would open if I held them with the spine on the ground and let the sides drop."

-- Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, p.75 (and what a beautiful argument against e-books!) (by the way, apropos of the Julian Barnes thread, this was one of the first hardback books I got, it was a bargain-priced £1.99 and it still has that sticker on the jacket to prove it! Hard-back, with dust jacket still intact, alas, it was only a reprint edition in 1993, so not a first edition, oh well (it probably wouldn't have been just 1.99 even in early 90s bargain prices!). Anyway, this is one of my favourite books ever and I like having it physically with me, and now, opening the book again to locate the quote after all these years, I'm a little sad to see the pages slightly yellowing around the edges already, even though it still looks pristine outside. But then I got reading one of my favourite passages again, that quietly heart-breaking part about how Paddy was trying so hard to mediate between his da and his ma by remembering his spellings and syllables, which had so much resonance for me when I first read it and still finds the passage resonating again after all these years... thanks for the chance to revisit a lost country.)