THE AUTHOR

this is a funny thing about reading books ... you don't remember them for long ... if re means again and it does and member what I think it does then to remember is to return to consciousness one of its members* ... there might be such a memory of books we've read in vivid detail awaiting us all even as now it should pertain to just a few of us ... but as it is ... given its poor performance ... it doesn't seem likely we read to retain ... put the average book down and a week later it's gone ... on the other hand there is a second strange feature about reading a book ... unless somebody reads it out loud reading a book is a private endeavor ... look at a person reading ... they are private but attractively so ... we love to see people reading ... that is ... what we see then we love ... so what is it we see when we see them seeing their books ... I think it's them ... we see them ... for what they're doing is private and attractive because it's personal ... what we see is their persons ... now look a second longer and imagine you actually see their sight ... what does it see ... the object of their sight ... their hearing ... their mind ... I think it's another person

*unfortunately another sad example of folk etymology: the root here is from the Latin for mind, not member, more like memoir than member; but nice try