We know that we do not need personal books — least of all librarian book collectors — but there is something about the way they speak to us unopened and spring to life when opened. It is good to sit at home in peace surrounded by the books that mean so much to me, even if neither utilitarianism nor rationalism can tell me why.
— Michael Gorman, Our Singular Strengths: Meditations for Librarians, p. 142