Maybe reading was just a way to make her feel less alone, to keep her company. When you read something you are stopped, the moment is stayed, you can sometimes be there more fully than you can in your real life.

The more books you read, the less topics you have in common with most of the people, that´s the price you pay for reading.

She thought it must be a lonely life for a boy who hated books.

In a word, literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book-friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness. The things I have learned and the things I have been taught seem of ridiculously little importance compared with their "large loves and heavenly charities.

A house without books is like room without windows

Read what you find interesting, and then follow your interests. You'll find that in doing so you always generate enough to illuminate the next step.