Tilly and the Bookwanderers

Books can change minds and change worlds, open doors and open minds, and plant seeds that can grow into magical or even terrifying things. Stories are things to be loved and respected at the same time; never underestimate the power of them.

Be brave, be curious, be kind.

Some people see a bookshop as an archive, or a shrine, or even a time machine. But I think a bookshop is like a map of the world. There are infinite paths you can take through it and none of them are right or wrong. Here in a bookshop we give readers landmarks to help them find their way, but every reader has to learn to set their own compass.

Friends should bring out the best in you, not be the same as you. I’m sure you’re someone’s perfect fit.

The books we love when we’re growing up shape us in a special way, Tilly. The characters in the books we read help us decide who we want to be.

So nowadays I try to make a little more space for the impossible to happen.

Are the things in your imagination less real than the things in front of you? Is this rose more real than you? Do the books you've read mean less to you because they haven't really happened to you? Do daydreams at midday or nightdreams at midnight mean nothing?

Tilly sometimes felt like there had been a lesson where friendship had been explained, but she’d been out sick and had never quite been able to catch up.

Well, I've listened to the audiobook, if that counts.' 'It definitely counts,' Tilly said.

A bit of nonsense never hurt anyone ...

. . . because the writer is saying that our dreams and our stories matter. I think it's quite beautiful that you can read the whole book as Alice telling her sister a story. And then Alice's sister is thinking about passing on the story to their future children, because stories last much longer than we do. Our stories are how we will be remembered - so we've got to make sure they are worth telling.

…because stories last much longer than we do. Our stories are how we will be remembered – so we’ve got to make sure they are worth telling.

Often characters in books are considerably more consistent than the people around us. All that messy life stuff does rather get in the way.

I think a bookshop is like a map of the world. There are infinite paths you can take through it and none of them are right or wrong. Here in a bookshop we give readers landmarks to help them find their way, but every reader has to learn to set their own compass.

bookshop is like a map of the world.

But we're all anomalies in one way or another - it's what makes being alive beautiful. We're more than neat plot devices; we're contradictory and confusing, and it's wonderful. There's nothing wrong with a few contradictions, and I think you might have to embrace them, as it would already seem that there are going to be some unpredictable side effects caused by your dad being fictional.

I'm not sure best friends are a one-size-fits-all sort of situation, Tilly,' Grandad said carefully. 'Sometimes a person who becomes a friend is the least likely person you'd expect. friends should bring out the best in you, not be the same as you. I'm sure you're someone's perfect fit.

Often it’s the things that don’t come naturally to us that are the most important,

You mean the sort of situation where you find out you live in a magical bookshop and you can talk to your favorite characters?

You’re so much like her, Matilda. I don’t want to make you feel like Harry Potter, but you really do have her eyes,’ Amelia said, and Oskar struggled to suppress a giggle.

I guess a book about a nice safe place where nothing happens would be kind of boring and no one would read it.

Legere est Peregrinari.” “What does that mean?” Tilly said, pointing. “It’s Latin,” Grandad explained. “It doesn’t have an easy English translation, but the verb peregrinor means to travel about, to roam or to wander, so it essentially means ‘to read is to wander.’ It’s the motto of the Underlibrary.

Well, is Wonderland really real at all? Is Wonderland more real than where Alice has come from, or where you have come from? You're both visitors to the land, and who's to say which or where or who has the greatest claim on reality?" the cat said.

. . . but the baddies are more interesting sometimes, don't you think? Or the heroes who aren't always very heroic. People who do the right thing for the wrong reasons or the wrong thing for the right reasons.

Trouble always starts when you are out of proportion with who you are talking to.

Our stories are how we will be remembered—so we’ve got to make sure they are worth telling.

Well, you never know what you might find, being in the wrong place at the right time,

I know you by heart. You are inside my heart.