Bookshelf

A coronavirus-laden world has changes far greater than any event in living memory. Everything is shuffled. Many become uncertain. Quite a lot have turned topsy-turvy. Simple as it should be, breathing becomes uneasy.

What matters to surviving the pandemic, whether as grow-ups or as children, is best explained by Dostoevsky who believes that human is a creature who can get used to anything.

One trick lies in the fact that we can look at more than one side, and at least at the positive side now and then. My daughter has been captivated by page-turning Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets this week. "If not because of the outbreak," said Jasmine, "I wouldn't have picked up this entertaining book series."

That's the flip side of closing public libraries. Nowhere is the need for book hunting more evident than in a city with libraries shut down for more than three months. To prepare for the third wave, I had already checked out more than ten books in June, before public library service was axed. Those book companions didn't last long; we had finished them pretty soon. Then it's time to dig into the old books on our bookshelf. 

That's how Jasmine found an old favorite of her mum's books and received a Hogwarts acceptance letter.