Soon the volume presents itself to him as a space into which he can move. … In fact, writing the diary is feasible at all only because Winston’s flat has a small alcove that was probably intended for bookshelves in the world that existed when the apartment house was built: “It was partly the unusual geography of the room that had suggested to him the thing that he was now about to do…But it had also been suggested by the book that he had just taken out of the drawer.” … The book joins the actual geography; it becomes Winston’s secret room.

Thomas Mallon, A Book of One's Own, loc. 709