THE CIRCULAR LIBRARY (December 19, 2011)
I dreamt that I was visiting an old castle with two women of about seventy. The lady of the house was showing us around. The same age as the other two visitors, she looked like them, as well. They all dressed in the manner of upper-class women in Britain. The castle looked Italian, though. I remember a vast and well-lit library to which we arrived down a long and shallow ramp. It was circular in shape. The books seemed to be cast in place. Going up in seven or eight rows, they were all the same height and thickness. From the middle of the circular library, they seemed to be enormous. On closer look, their backs were cast in plaster and painted pale-blue. Golden lettering on each back completed the picture. There were thousands of such books around the room. The lady of the house explained that each compartment behind the plaster back contained an actual book. The whole library was put together in the Sixteenth Century. The books were among the first ever printed. I could not figure out how to get to the books behind the plaster backs, but the lady of the house assured me that was easy enough. She was about to show me, too. Sadly, I woke up before I could put my hands on a single book.