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My great-grandfather was a self-taught man, and his library was extraordinary. I read the lot.

My father was in the Army and we moved around a lot, and one of my favorite places was the library.

I discovered reading through libraries. I grew up in a house that wasn't brimming with books.

My mother brought us to the library every week, and I read a lot. That's what kept me company. I went from school to school, but there was always reading.

The library was the place I went to find out what there was to know. It was absolutely essential.

I worked in a bookstore in Oslo, importing the English-language books.

At age eleven, I became a member of the circulating library of my home town. From there on I was rarely seen outside but was reading two to four books per week, the subjects ranging from archaeology over ethnology and geography to zoology. Needless to say that I did not do much homework.

When I was 14, I saw a library for the first time.