I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.

Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose.

Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you’d most like not to lose.

. . . I lay on the bed and lost myself in the stories.
I liked that. Books were safer than other people anyway.

Growing up, I took so many cues from books. They taught me most of what I knew about what people did, about how to behave. They were my teachers and my advisers.

I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.