One life - no protection
How can you explain it to anyone what makes a book being the favourite one? How can I convey to the other person that very feeling that comes to me all the time when I think about that particular title – it's not just a book, at least for me. Mood, words, sentences I would never forget. The other day I took the book off the shelf and flipped it through, but I couldn't find what to show to the man who has been demanding an explanation for this fascination for years. The book was old-fashioned, paperback, with the snow-covered, tiny cottage at the front, with narrow little window eyes glowing yellow in the night. I read through several parts of the volume, and then suddenly stopped at the sentences I had read a thousand times: “In the groves there is no protection and winter doesn’t accept any re-taken exams. Here, you always have to know the whole curriculum, and prove it day by day. There is no possibility to cheat. A sole inappropriate answer can lead to the complet...