What if every time you bought a book at a bookstore
They started an account in your name
And you had to pay them back
A quantified value of anything good that ever happened to you
Because of what you learned from the books.
Like if you bought a study guide and passed an engineering test
then you had to pay them ten percent of your salary for the rest of your life
and if a picturesque fairy tale cottage influenced your house decorations
you had to donate all your old furniture to the store.
and if a pet care book helped you own a dog,
you had to give a bookseller one of the puppies.
And if tale of two cities convinced you to trust in God
then you had to give back half your blessings for all of eternity,
And if you avoided the bookstore but found certain book titles
inspiring when other people mentioned them,
The bookstore people would hunt you down anyway and demand your wallet
no matter how much you decided to be far from the madding crowd.