And so before I say goodnight, one more thing

“I, too, have eaten paper from old books.  I remember as a girl tearing and eating the corners of pages as I read.  Victorian paper tastes dry—better actually, than the paper used in newer books, which, if uncoated, tastes dull like chalk, or, if glossy, like tilefish or squid.  When I ate the paper I took each corner the way one takes a communion wafer, flat on the tongue, feeling it dissolve.  I ate not from hunger but because the page came to hand.  I ate my way especially through the corners of theElsie Dinsmorebooks.My mother (who used to eat library paste and paper too!) said that both of us must have suffered from a dietary deficiency. Therefore I am free to blame my behavior on an inherited craving.”

Rosamond Purcell, OWLS HEAD (The Quantuck Lane Press) (2003)

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That’s it.  Good night, everybody, a pleasure knowing you via this almost radio-like platform.  Thanks to P.L. and the Academy, happy April. DW