Every book tells a story, but I don't want mine to tell just the same story that all other copies of it tell. I scribble notes on the front page of every book of mine to brand it, to explain where and why and how I've bought it, whom I was with, the weather that day and all manners of unnecessary information. Because I never intend for them to leave my company. Because how they've ended up with me is also a story.

When I'm gone, people will be rummaging bemusedly through boxes of my books and reading the front pages, thinking this is the museum guide she bought (and finished reading) when she was queuing for 2 hours to get into the Uffizi musuem in Florence. Or this is yet another language dictionary (but why does she need one for Welsh?). Or this is the banned book (in English) she found at a flea market along a river in Frankfurt, of all places. People will find place-markers in my books, all the wrinkled ticket stubs, little post-it notes, and the rare bookmark.. they will tell I'm often distracted in my reading cos there are so many I'm stuck in the middle of. That I hope one day to finish reading every book I own but somehow that seems too ambitious.