I read in an attempt to slow down the world around me.

Yara looks at life as a long journey that she makes more tolerable by reading, as it is a great companion, a dear friend, and an immense help during life’s ups and downs; as well as being the magical tool that enables her to slow down time, even a little. If she does not like the view outside, all she needs to do is peek into her current read for a change of scenery, where each book offers a multitude of options that are bound by nothing other than the limitless human imagination. Because her journey through life is sometimes incomprehensible, she can do little else but read to hold on to her wits, maintain her sense of wonder, and escape the abominable state of being distracted. Yara is duly aware of the light that reading emanates for her, so that she can see her next step, and with a leap of faith she can know the other with greater empathy.

Borrowing a literary metaphor from the Egyptian visionary Tawfiq al-Hakim, Yara moves intellectually with reading, and loves searching in all the valleys of the mind until the last instance in which she finally stills the overwhelming torrent of curiosity.