AustLit

'It’s a fact readily acknowledged that one can encounter some books simply too late in life to appreciate — or, in some cases, even tolerate — them. The famous examples include “The Catcher in the Rye,” most of the Beats, all of Anaïs Nin. But I’m more curious about the counterpoint: Those books said to require experience, and age, to unlock.' (Introduction)

'Ancient glaciers did not travel alone. They carried within them pebbles, rocks, even boulders, sometimes for hundreds of miles. These migrating stones, once deposited, are called “erratics” — they stick out among their new surroundings. When the Cordilleran ice sheet worked its way down the mountains of Alaska and across western Canada, it melted to reveal a trail of angular stones now known as the Foothills Erratics Train.' (Introduction)