Through the Magic Door

Through the Magic Door by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a study of English literature that contains several fascinating essays on books including the following exerpt: I care not how humble your bookshelf may be, nor how lowly the room Which it adorns. Close the door of that room behind you, shut off With it all the cares of the outer world, plunge back into the soothing company of the great dead, and then you are through the magic portal into that fair land Whither worry and vexation can follow you no more. You have left all that is vulgar and all that is sordid behind you. There stand your noble, silent comrades, waiting in their ranks. Pass your eye down their files. Choose your man. And then you have but to hold up your hand to him and away you go together into dreamland.