20
One day a good fortune befell him, for he hit upon The Thousand Nights and a Night.
He was captured first by the illustrations, and then he began to read the stories that
dealt with magic , and then the others; and those he liked he read again and again. He
could think of nothing else. Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world
, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge
from all the distress of life; he did not know either that he was creating for himself an
unreal world which would make the real world of every day a source of bitter disappointment.