Hours had passed since a gunman opened fire on Derfuss and his fellow students when his friend noticed something odd.

"I pulled out the books and saw they were all ripped apart," the 21-year-old humanities student told NBC News. "I started examining them and my friend found a bullet in the back page."

The book was one of several Derfuss had checked out from the library earlier.

"There is no way I should be alive," he said. "Literally, those books saved my life." (Photo via NBC News)

But Derfuss is crediting more than academics with sparing his life.

"It's crazy: One minute I am checking out books and the next I am crying on my bedroom floor thinking I shouldn't be alive," he said. "Those books saved me, and God saved me."

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