I am reading this exquisite book right now by Amor Towles. As my friend Amber described, “it´s like fine dining all the way". A few weeks ago, I shared some passages from Patti Smith´s morning coffee dream. This is another beautiful description:

Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov stirred at half past eight to the sound of rain on the eaves. With a half- opened eye, he pulled back the covers and climbed from bed. He donned his robe and slipped on his slippers. He took up the tin from the bureau, spooned a spoonful of beans in the Apparatus, and began to crank the crank.

Even as he turned the little handle round and round, the room remained under the tenous authortity of sleep. As yet unchallenged, somnolence continued to cast its shadow over sights and sensations, over forms and formulations, over what has been said and what must be done, lending each the insubstantiality of its domain. But when the Count opened the small wooden drawer of the grinder, the world and all it contained were transformed by that envy of the alchemists- the aroma of freshly ground coffee.

In that instant, darkness was separated from the light, the waters from the lands, and the heavens from the earth. The trees bore fruit and the woods rustled with the movement of the birds and beasts and all manner of creeping things. While closer at hand, a patient pigeon scuffed its feet on the flashing.