“When you handle books all day long, every new one is a friend and a temptation.”
Elizabeth Kostova
Day Twenty-Six: A Book That Changed Your Opinion About Something
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which changed my opinion about university.
I am completely serious.
Before I read The Historian, the idea of university was literally the most terrifying thing. Going somewhere completely new? Having to talk to Other People? Learning on my own, without teachers making me do it?
Terrifying.
Then I read The Historian, which completely changed my mind. I actively wanted to go to university. This is because The Historian is full of libraries, of people working to find the truth from old books, poor but happy university professors, researchers, seekers after knowledge…
Of course, it helped that the book has a definite tinge of the supernatural, because that made the idea of university all the more attractive. Going there will help you hunt down vampires! Who could resist?
And the fact that university is very different to what I imagined does not diminish my gratefulness to that book. The Historian is still one of my favourites, and it still makes me want to go to university.
Even though I’m already there.
The English Student 