Ever since my return to Zagreb, I am catching myself thinking about acquiring a new book or two. There are a couple of good bookstores with foreign books right in the center of the city, and both are on my daily round. How about another book about the fall of Rome, for example? Well, I have mastered the subject already. Or a new book about climate change? There is hardly anything new I can learn on the subject, though. But how about a book about yoga? By now I have collected way too many books on the subject, anyhow. Such thoughts go through my mind every single day, but I manage to push them away over and over again. Forget about books, I keep telling myself. I am already drowning in them both in Zagreb and in Motovun. Actually, forget about reading. Focus inward. And write as much as you wish. Writing can only sharpen your focus. If there is anything worth reading in this context, it is your own book, which keeps growing by the day. And that is that.

Addendum (November 18, 2015)

At long last, I am following my own advice. As of late, I visit the bookstores with foreign books rather rarely. Whenever I do, I go only for the oldest among classics both from the so-called east and west. But I am spending most of my time reading my own book. As well as writing addenda in response to some of my writings, which I discover entirely by chance. My uncharted journeys through my magnum opus offer an unprecedented joy to me. In short, I am focusing inward. And how. This year I broke a long-standing record of the number of addenda written per year, but I would not be surprised by many a new record in years to come. All things considered, I feel that I am on the right path. And my focus is ever sharper, ever more deliberate. Inward, inward! An unknown universe is opening up in front of my eyes day after day…