Pick one? Just one, of all these treasures? Robin didn't know the first title from the second, and he was too dazzled by the sheer amount of text to flip through and decide. His eyes alighted on a title: The King's Own by Frederick Marryat, an author he was, so far, unfamiliar with. But new, he thought, was good.

'Hm. Marryat. I haven't read him, but I'm told he's popular with boys your age.' Professor Lovell turned the book over in his hands. 'This one, then? You're sure?'

Robin nodded. If he didn't decide now, he knew, he'd never leave. He was like a starved man in a pastry shop, dazzled by his options, but he did not want to try the professor's patience.

— Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution (5%)