I’m reading, yes, but first I’m tossing coins. They must be three coins of the same size and weight so when they are thrown in the air fate has an even chance. If there’s a shortage on loose change, three flattened bottle tops will do, though coins are better. Here, heads have a value of three and tails have a value of two.

I’m consulting the I Ching or Book of Changes whose first layers of text have been traced to the end of the 2nd millennium BC. The version I have in hand is the one you would find in any second hand bookshop: black cover, red title, the Richard Wilhelm translation rendered into English by Carey F. Barnes, first published in 1951 and reprinted many times since.