Stumbling Into Magic

This is how it works: you put yourself in a receptive frame of mind, you walk into the stacks, you scan the shelves, you don't aim to choose a book; you wait for a book to choose you.

I've done this twice in less than a month and it's worked for me both times. First time I got Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, second time I got Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. These are not just books I've enjoyed reading, these are books I was meant to read.

I didn't set out to do magic on either occasion- I just sort of stumbled into it. If my mind was blank it was because I genuinely didn't have a clue what I was looking for. The world is intrinsically magical and wants to co-operate with us and give us gifts; all we have to do is be open.