Books are like journeys. Some keep you close to what you know, but help you see it in a different light. They're not particularly hard to get into, or to leave behind in the end. The good ones can be ingeniously funny, heartbreakingly sad, devastatingly ironic. They can make you think; you remain yourself, yet the thoughts are not your own. A very formative experience.

Other books are like long-haul flights; they take you far away to unfamiliar places. They're hard to get into, but when you do, they become parts of your life and it's oh-so-painful to move on. The good ones can be impossibly complex, strangely dreamlike, dangerously addictive. They can make you think; the thoughts are your own, only you are not yourself.
A most transformative experience.