Summer promises us two of lifes great joys escaping home and reading books  joys that are of course intimately connected Books may help us to feel more at home in the world at large We can relate our experiences to those described in great books written long ago or in distant lands because there are fewer human types than there are people In the books of others we find our own thoughts embarrassments and dramas Authors can locate words to depict a situation we thought ourselves alone in feeling or can express our very own thoughts but with a clarity and psychological accuracy we could not match What was shy and confused within us is unapologetically and cogently phrased in them a congruence all the more striking if the work was written by someone in a farflung place or in another age We feel grateful to these strangers for reminding us of who we are