I read this while feeling restless on the train back to campus. The start of term made me anxious, but I could not explain exactly what I was anxious about.

I did not realize then that it was my last long break at university.

Picking up this book at random helped me out of that difficulty. It gave me the perspective of other creatures. It was as though I were the cat in the book, looking at humans and at everything I was facing. Suddenly, I understood how tiny all the things worrying me really were. Page forty-nine gave me a good dream—perhaps only ten-odd minutes long—on the high-speed train. Once the anxiety came undone, I closed my eyes in relief and quickly slipped into REM sleep.

I cannot remember the dream clearly. I remember that Siddhartha, or perhaps The Razor’s Edge, describes a yogi using meditation to transcend their spirit and inhabit other objects. This book gave me a similar opening and perspective. In several places, it truly let me observe the world and humanity from a bird’s point of view.

Thank you for those few pages.