Pi reflects that, besides being saved, his greatest wish on the lifeboat was to have a book—ideally a long, endlessly rereadable story. He laments that there was no scripture aboard, likening himself to Arjuna without Krishna’s guidance.

He recalls that the first time he later found a Bible in a Canadian hotel bedside table, he burst into tears. The experience moves him to donate to the Gideons the next day, urging them to place not only Bibles but other sacred writings wherever tired travelers stay, as a quiet, noncoercive way to spread faith.

Pi notes that even a good novel would have helped, but the only reading material on the lifeboat was the survival manual, which he reread obsessively throughout his ordeal.

To compensate, Pi kept a diary, though he finds it difficult to read now. He began it about a week after the ship sank, once the initial chaos eased, writing tiny to conserve paper; the undated entries compress long stretches of time and focus on practical realities—his catches and failures, the sea and weather, problems and solutions, his feelings, and Richard Parker.