I think it's important to recognise that 'The Da Vinci Code' opened up a vast new audience for a general readership interested in historical detective stories and research into history.

And how could anyone consent to give up the smell of open books, old or new?

You are a total stranger and you want to take my library book.

It was good to walk into a library again; it smelled like home.

My guess is that he remembers some of me, some of us together, and the rest rolled off him like topsoil in a flash flood.