All morning I struggled with the sensation of stray wisps of one world seeping through the cracks of another. Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes -- characters even -- caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you. Diane Setterfield
About This Quote

The metaphor of a book as a membrane represents the experience of reading as a process at once individual and collective. You read alone, but you also read with other people, and even more importantly, with the authors who wrote those books. You must be aware that the book you are reading is not original, and it will never be yours. It will always belong to the author and to the world. Your experience is individual, but it also carries meaning for others.

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

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