This is why Aristotle thought that you can't judge whether a man was "happy" until after he's dead. And sometimes until long after he's died, because it would depend on the actions of, say, his offspring (which would reflect the way he helped raise them).
…It is not too far-fetched to link the silence at the end of a musical performance with death. In Moscow, on the gravestone of the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke is carved a stave with the semi-circle and dot of a fermata, the sign that indicates that a note (or in this case a pause) is to be held. Underneath is written ‘fff’ (one step above fortissimo, meaning very, very loud).
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As I've grown older, I've realised that one of the joys of reading is not only to discover new books but to re-read and re-discover ones I've read before. Just as listening to a song when you're in love is different to when you're not, so (as I've commented before somewhere) reading a book at one age is different to reading one at another.
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