Things worth keeping

A ticket from a train journey. A sentence copied onto the back of an envelope. A photograph in which nobody is looking at the camera. The things we keep do not always explain themselves.

Their value lives in the distance between what they are and what they return to us. A piece of paper becomes a place. A few words become a person’s voice.

When you find a passage that matters to you, mark it. Write down what it brought to mind. Your note does not have to be clever or complete. It only has to be yours.

A book changes as we read it because we change while reading. The sentence you pass over today may be the one you need next year. Leaving a mark is a way of meeting your future self on the page.

You have reached the end of this sample edition. Your own book can begin here.