"Experience came to me first through books. when later in life I came across an event or circumstance or character similar to one I had read about, it usually had the slightly startling but disappointing feeling of deja vu, because I imagined that what was now taking place had already happened to me in words"
- Manguel pg 8

This particular passage really stuck out to me, because I have experiences similar situations where something I had once read about, and not fully understood at the time, seemed to fall flat once I had actually experienced it for myself. Manguel goes on to say that although he had never tasted Jelly, he had read about it before, but once he actually tasted it he was disappointed because it was not nearly as magnificent as he had been lead to beleive. One of the first exampled of this that comes to mind is actually Harry Potter.

The summer before my first year of college I was ecstatic about the idea of going off and living on my own. I imagined that I would make friends and have all these awesome adventures away from my parents and that I would become unimaginably immersed in culture and learning. My first year of college did not go like that at all. I discovered that the major I had chosen was not only fairly useless in the real world but also that most of my classmates (and professors) were arrogant and cocky. I didn't have a car and as a result I spent most of my time in the dining hall instead of having all of the marvolous adventures I had dreamt up for myself. I developed severe depression as a result of both the dramatic change of suddenly living on my own with a roommate who was a horror in and of herself, and at my despair that all of my visions of an exciting and carefree college life had been dashed.

I was clearly enamoured by the whimsical world J K Rowling had illustrated to me through her words. I mean obviously I wasn't expecting magic or wizards or quidditch, but I certainly was not expecting to end up running back home to my parents because I hated my major and dorm rooms are ridiculously expensive.