I cannot sleep unless I am surrounded by books.

Taken at face value, the line presents books not merely as objects of study but as a kind of necessary environment—an emotional and imaginative “habitat” without which rest is impossible. In Borges’s case, the sentiment aligns with his lifelong identification of reading with intimacy, refuge, and identity: books are companions, a protective architecture, and a portal to other worlds. The hyperbole (“cannot sleep”) underscores dependence and devotion, suggesting that literature is as basic as shelter. It also hints at the porous boundary between waking life and the life of texts—an idea central to Borges’s work, where libraries, memory, and dreams continually interpenetrate.