books

So let us praise the distinctive pleasures of re-reading: that particular shiver of anticipation as you sink into a beloved, familiar text; the surprise and wonder when a book that had told one tale now turns and tells another; the thrill when a book long closed reveals a new door with which to enter. In our tech-obsessed, speed-obsessed, throw-away culture let us be truly subversive and praise instead the virtues of a long, slow relationship with a printed book unfolding over many years, a relationship that includes its weight in our hands and its dusty presence on our shelves. In an age that prizes novelty, irony, and youth, let us praise familiarity, passion, and knowledge accrued through the passage of time. As we age, as we change, as our lives change around us, we bring different versions of ourselves to each encounter with our most cherished texts. Some books grow better, others wither and fade away, but they never stay static.

I have found that the morning is far more accessible when a good book awaits you.

Sitting in the brightly lit library, surrounded by books, in total silence, that was ma personal zenith.

I don't trust people without books or questions.

The reading of great books has been a life-altering activity to me and, for better or worse, brought me singing and language-obsessed to that country where I make my living. Except for teaching, I__e had no other ambition in life than to write books that mattered.

Reading is like diving into an ocean of an alternate world, away from your real world, where in spite of going though the pain and pleasure of the characters, you remain a witness, unscathed.

Books may not judge you, but people do.

When you read,' the man whispered, 'you discover who you really are. You find traces of yourself, little pieces you didn't know were there.

...'To the making of many books there is no end, and much devotion to them is wearisome to the flesh.'_ Ecclesiastes 12:12

All this time I thought you were reading to escape the world, but now I know, you didn__ read to escape it; you read to discover it.

A library _ a place full of books! Imagine!" Ivy couldn't imagine a place closer to heaven. Think of all the books you could read!

And then I keep reading, anyway__ut not just because I like the story. I like knowing that I'm touching her with my words. That they're crawling in her ears as she sleeps.

But I can now understand why people read, why they like to get lost in somebody else's life. Sometimes I'll read a sentence and it will make me sit up, jolt me, because it is something that I have recently felt but never said out loud. I want to reach into the page and tell the characters that I understand them, that they're not alone, that I'm not alone, that it's ok to feel like this. And then the lunch bell rings, the book closes, and I'm plunged back into reality.

It was always after reading tales such as these that she wondered how on earth it was that some young ladies did not read at all, or declared they had no interest in it. Didn't they know how you could feel so much from a book? Didn't they know how your heart could race and break from words on a page? Had they never read something so wonderful and horrible that they felt as though the very would should stop and pause to acknowledge the depth of feeling it produced?

Reading is important. It__ not primarily escapism (though it can be, and there__ nothing wrong with some of that in good measure) and it__ not primarily a way of passing the time. Reading is important to the good life because it stokes the furnaces of our intellect, allows us to expand our understanding of the universe, both inner and outer, for practical gain and simple pleasure. It can induce awe, inspire respect, excite, piss off, and intrigue. These are things that make life worth living.

Anything that spreads books and brings about more books, I would say it is good. Good medicine, not bad.

As with a love affair, the battered heart needs time to recover from a good work of fiction.

I utilise all my spare moments. I've read twenty-seven of the Hundred Best Books. I collect ferns.