It is one of the strongest bonds, I think, that can spring up between people: sharing a passion for certain books and their authors.
I suspected, however, that I wasn't homesick for anything I would find at home when I returned. The longing was for what I wouldn't find: the past and all the people and places there were lost to me.
And who's to say that just because something lasts only a short time, it has little value?
I suppose that, after the passion of love, water rights have caused more trouble than anything else to the human species.