MELBOURNE — Sei Shonagon was a Japanese woman who served as a court lady to the Empress Teishi at the beginning of the eleventh century. At some stage between 1001 and 1010 she published The Pillow Book. The book is notable, among other things, for its lists. These lists include one, which is titled, ‘A List of Things That Quicken the Heart.’

We can’t always satisfy list-making compulsions by resorting to the prioritising of the ‘Top Five Songs Produced by Phil Spector between 1961 and 1964,’ as entertaining as it is. If, instead, we were to document those flights of the heart, foremost on that list, along with the title of the list itself, must surely be the rush of finding a record or a book that was previously thought impossible to find. The odd trip to The Searchers on Smith Street is likely to result in a discovery of this sort, be it Kate Bush or Eugene O’Neill. The shop’s generous selection of second hand records and books, covering almost every genre one can imagine, could take the better part of several hours to get through.

You patiently peruse the shelves and the boxes, appreciating the tough spines of the books and the weight of the vinyl, all the while with little mind as to what you will find. And then your eyes fall on that copy of In Watermelon Sugar. And your heart, for that moment, it quickens with no end.