Dear reader,
Before we get started, I need to clear up one thing: if we are going to be friends, you also get to be friends with my books. If we are going to be acquaintances only, you get to become acquainted with the books I am reading or have read or want to read.
Because you are also a reader and a lover of books, you will understand. The relationships with our books are important. Sometimes I like to recite poetry to mine. Sometimes I like to serenade them with a saccharine tune. Do you do this, too? It’s okay if you do not. It is okay if you stop at hugging them every once in a while.
What you are reading now is not a poem or a hug or a song; it is a collection of letters to books I have loved. It is not enough—the books themselves are much better! But it is evidence of these relationships that have mattered to me.
To the books we have, each of us, loved,
Sarah Avenir
