Random: Why I Like Jo Walton ...

It's largely because she wrote this poem:

I dreamed I went to Heaven, and in the bookshop there,
I went, the way I always go, to R,
Even though I've all the Renault, even though it isn't fair,
Even though I know there won't be any more.

And there were six new Renault, six new books I'd never seen,
Six unknown books she'd written since she died,
And I picked them up and held them, feeling happy as a queen,
And a voice said, "Have you looked the other side?

"There are four new Tolkiens waiting (he could never write them fast);
There are thirty Heinleins, written at his best;
There is Piper, there's Dunsany, there's more Sayers here at last,
And O'Brian, and Zelazny, and the rest."

And I staggered there in Heaven, as my arms and eyes spilled o'er,
And I said, "Now where to start, I just don't know --
I am rich in wealth of Heaven's books, here gathered on the floor,
And four hundred years of Shakespeare still to go."

It also helps that Walton wrote The King's Name and The King's Peace, the best alt-King Arthur I've read, and Farthing, among the best modern alt-hist. But this poem is simply ... apt. Myself, I am inclined to think that it would be a poor life in a land where no libraries (or bookshops) throve, but, sadly, if there are libraries (or bookshops) beyond the Great Sea, none has reported it.