The scent of old paper and the hushed reverence of libraries – these were the cornerstones of a childhood spent lost in worlds crafted by others. It wasn’t simply about escaping reality; it was a relentless, burgeoning curiosity, a need to understand *how* things worked, *why* stories resonated, and *what* lay beyond the known. This wasn’t a passive enjoyment of books, but an active dismantling and rebuilding of ideas within a young mind.
