Derek Was Here

I have a great many books of which I have read no small amount a great many times. I do so enjoy employing all manners of bookmarks, but I do not scoff at dog-earing the corner of a page, nor laying a book splayed out on the read pages. Thus, a great majority of my books have a well-read quality to their appearance. Tonight, after having reached a nice stopping point in The Fellowship of the Ring, I noticed as I began to fold the corner of the page that it already had a well-worn crease. It was as though I was able to shake hands with an earlier version of myself; a comforting thought. I hope someday that someone, maybe one my own grown children, or even a grandchild, stopping at the same place, notices the same noticeable folds, like landmarks on a much traveled path, and smiles at the memory --of me.