One of the weirdest things about trying to learn a new language is how it just totally obliviates your personality. Have a sense of humor? Now you don’t. That sort of thing. And, even weirder, even as your personality is more or less consigned to oblivion, it somehow becomes a lot more stark. That helpful…

All those books that surround me every day allow me to feel near to myself—to what I was, to that reader who kept growing, changing, adding layers—and to the information and ideas they contain. Or that they only suggest. Or that they only hyperlink: many of my books are planets orbiting around thinkers, writers, and…