What you learn when you smuggle books out of the library:

“Mersault spoke of a ‘mournful solace,’ and finally there was a name to describe the atmosphere in my house. I tested the phrase on my best friend, Rosie Murray, one afternoon as we walked home from school. “How’s your grandmom?” she’d asked. I said she wasn’t getting better, then announced: “The house is filled with a mournful solace.” Rosie frowned and said, “I never know what you’re talking about, but that sounds bad."

-Denise Gess – “The Most Important Book I Read” – on, The Stranger by Albert Camus