Through reading and travel we escape the deadening effect of habit Our eyes are never more open than during our first few days in a new place except perhaps during our reading of a great book which guides us to the interest of things we had previously ignored Our mind is like a radar newly attuned to pick up certain objects floating through consciousness Our attention is drawn to the shades of the sky to the changeability of a face to the hypocrisy of a friend or to a submerged sadness about a situation that we had previously not even known we could feel sad about 