Tuesday, September 16th. The shoes I wore to meet the architect....

Everything I ever needed to know about love and yearning I learned from loving books. Meeting for the first time at Elliott Bay over coffee. The book’s beautiful cover: type and image seducing me. Its pages like hands of a new lover to touch and caress slowly, each turn revealing more words I can’t resist.

See also: When You’re Buried In Books, 33 Reasons Why You’re Addicted to Books, and AIGA’s 50 Books / 50 Covers

You begin a conversation you can’t stop. And so, on the first date, you take each other home and spend the night together, conversing into the wee hours of the morning, your worlds intertwined until you become one with the book. And the book becomes a part of you.

“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.” —Anna Quindlen

We met the architect again last week. Once again after a very long hiatus. A hiatus caused by a break in Will’s employment. Which is hard. Very hard on a marriage, but we are slogging through. I’ve read that building a house together can be hard on a marriage, too.

There are a few absolutes for this house. This house shall:

Have transom windows.

Greet guests with a door from Baltimore.

Stand elegant and tall.

Honor craft and simplicity.

Marry form and function.

Last but definitely – hell no most definitely – not! This house shall love books.

And so I said, Mark. In every room. In every room there shall be a place for books.