The walls of books around him, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world and its disasters. - Ross Macdonald
The walls were lined with books, many of them in foreign languages, like insulation against the immediate present. - Ross Macdonald
I look up at the ceiling, at all the hardcover fiction. So very few people want it. It is operating as insulation rather than stock. The argument rages on about whether it is better to have books or ebooks, but while everyone gets heated about the choices, the hardcover fiction molders quietly away. - Deborah Meyler