We weren't passing through Corvel. We had no reason to be there. That turned out to be exactly the right reason.

Mara had been the previous summer and described it carefully. I went in October, when it was empty. We saw a completely different place.

We sat down at half past twelve. We left at five. This is a record of what happened in between.

There is a grammar to good markets. Once you learn to read it, you stop needing lists.

I bought it from a man at a street market who sharpened knives from a cart. It was not for sale. He sold it to me anyway.

It covers a region neither of us had heard of. Several of the roads no longer exist. We have been planning a trip around it for two years.

Fourteen shelves, two readers, no system. A tour of what we own, how it got here, and why almost none of it is organised alphabetically.

A book you finish on a trip and bring home anyway is a book that earned its place. Here are five of ours.