Found this inside my library book. I used to find it fascinating looking at the dates and seeing how often and at what intervals a book was checked out. This book, for example, is almost 20 years old and had periods of four and five years of sitting on a shelf, waiting. After 2002 we lose its story, thanks to electronic book tracking.

But I wonder: What do books do while waiting on shelves? Do they hope to get chosen, feel disappointed when the next book over gets taken? Do they have squabbles with neighboring books and hope for preserving?

Do books sleep, and what would they dream?