A few days ago I was looking for a copy of W.B. Yeats’ poem “Vacillation” and looked in Yeats’ Selected Poems for it, of course the poem was there. Then I noticed that I had written the date of when and where I bought this book; it was in Galway, Ireland, on 22 July 1978. I remember being in Galway and walking near a cliff overlooking the ocean and drinking hot tea, it rained and was chilly all the time. I noticed I had purchased the book at O’Gorman’s Stationery Bookshop but I have no memory of being there. I know that the smell of old books, and just the presence of books, has an equilibrating effect on me; I have happy memories reading in bed (for instance, Kathleen Raine's autobiography), falling asleep reading, and even sleeping with a few books on my bed, the weight of books is comforting. Here is another example of the importance of books, of the curative influence of books: I visited an antiquarian bookstore in Arundel, in the UK, before visiting Galway, in July 1978, and immediately felt at peace and at one with the world which I hadn’t been feeling when I entered the store; breathing in the smell of old books brings me peace and happiness. And now, a few weeks after visiting Arundel, here I was in Ireland; it was not a happy time in my life, I was far from home, cold, wet, and lonely. After finding Yeats’s poem I Googled O’Gorman’s bookshop and found that it had closed years ago, but the O’Gorman’s were interesting, especially Ronnie O'Gorman, a grandson of the founder of the bookshop. Ronnie O'Gorman loved books and after his passing his very large collection of books was donated to the University of Galway; Mr. O'Gorman's library is a national treasure. No one needs to be lonely and unhappy if they love books and surround themselves with them.
