h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
Che la diritta via era smaritta.

And Italian, apparently. What does it say? All I can make out is the road of our life... a dark jungle... ?

a dark wilderness
and thence a road looses itself straightly

But you can probably find a better translation somewhere else, because I don't speak italian either.
And actually, it is the beginning of the Divine Comedy
which thus goes on:

Ahi quanto a dir qual era e cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura.

But this isn't the most important. What's important is that it alludes to love, because the beginning of a book should bring to your mind its end, and the Divine Comedy ends in the following way:

A l'alta fantasia qui manco possa;
ma gia volgeva il mio disio e'l velle,
si come rota ch'igualmente e mossa,
l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.

How silly of me, I should have recognised that. The copy I've got is the H. W. Longfellow translation...

Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

I own too many books.

I really wonder what you mean when you say you *own* too many books. Is it some kind of nostalgia to the ideal of Diogenes? Personnaly I am very glad to have found the French National Library to be as close as possible with as much books as possible without really *owning* them. But I must admit I am still addicted to , hmmm, holding the books in my hands and smelling the old paper...

I own them, they are mine, I have *conquered* them... Alas, I have this perverse need to have my own copy of every book I read. It's sick, really. Kinda like those people who etch notches into their bedposts. And the smell of the paper is very, very old, seeing as I nearly reside at the used book store. This usually is a direct cause of my consistent food intake of Ramen noodles and other people's food.