1bookwoman247
I'm new here, and I hope that my topic is in keeping with the group. I thought it would be nice for the group to have a place to share quotes about books.
Sometimes, as I'm reading along in a book, I come across a nice quote about books or reading, even though the subject of the book isn't about books at all.
For instance, I'm now reading The Orientalist bu Tom Reiss, and came across the following quote:
"Lev's education began with a vast home library left behind by his mother. 'Not a single person touched the books until I learned to read.', he would recall. 'From then on I had the keys and read whatever I wanted. No one was allowed to disturb me. My father said it was my inheritence and I could do with it what I pleased.' Lev remembered the world of 'books, books books', which was all he had left of his mother. 'For days and days I sat motionless in my armchair, and read books about Arab bards, Persian wisemen, and Turkish knights and horsemen.'"
Sometimes, as I'm reading along in a book, I come across a nice quote about books or reading, even though the subject of the book isn't about books at all.
For instance, I'm now reading The Orientalist bu Tom Reiss, and came across the following quote:
"Lev's education began with a vast home library left behind by his mother. 'Not a single person touched the books until I learned to read.', he would recall. 'From then on I had the keys and read whatever I wanted. No one was allowed to disturb me. My father said it was my inheritence and I could do with it what I pleased.' Lev remembered the world of 'books, books books', which was all he had left of his mother. 'For days and days I sat motionless in my armchair, and read books about Arab bards, Persian wisemen, and Turkish knights and horsemen.'"
2janemarieprice
Two of my favorite quotes are bookish:
“He turned the pages in steady progression, though now and then he would seem to linger upon one page, one line, perhaps one word. He would not look up then. He would not move, apparently arrested and held immobile by a single word which had perhaps not yet impacted, his whole being suspended by the single trivial combination of letters in quiet and sunny space, so that hanging motionless and without physical weight he seemed to watch the slow flowing of time beneath him…”
- from Light in August by William Faulkner
“I felt that a story was over, that what had been begun a long time back had been played out, that the lemon had been squeezed dry. But if anything is certain it is that no story is ever over, for the story which we think is over is only a chapter in a story which will not be over, and it isn’t the game that is over, it is just an inning, and that game has a lot more than nine innings. When the game stops it will be called on account of darkness. But it is a long day.”
- from All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
“He turned the pages in steady progression, though now and then he would seem to linger upon one page, one line, perhaps one word. He would not look up then. He would not move, apparently arrested and held immobile by a single word which had perhaps not yet impacted, his whole being suspended by the single trivial combination of letters in quiet and sunny space, so that hanging motionless and without physical weight he seemed to watch the slow flowing of time beneath him…”
- from Light in August by William Faulkner
“I felt that a story was over, that what had been begun a long time back had been played out, that the lemon had been squeezed dry. But if anything is certain it is that no story is ever over, for the story which we think is over is only a chapter in a story which will not be over, and it isn’t the game that is over, it is just an inning, and that game has a lot more than nine innings. When the game stops it will be called on account of darkness. But it is a long day.”
- from All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
3vpfluke
I recently read a book, The House of Paper by Carlos María Domínguez with this statement:
"To tell the truth, I've given up counting. But I think there must be around eighteen thousand. I've been buying books here and there ever since I can remember. To build up a library is to create a life. It's never just a random collection of books."
This Uruguayan novel describes something of my own situation with books.
"To tell the truth, I've given up counting. But I think there must be around eighteen thousand. I've been buying books here and there ever since I can remember. To build up a library is to create a life. It's never just a random collection of books."
This Uruguayan novel describes something of my own situation with books.
5WholeHouseLibrary
Rather than do all that here (although it's a worthwhile activity), there was a Group that was created this past February, dedicated to that single purpose.
It's called Book Quotations.
It's called Book Quotations.
62wonderY
This is from Eudora Welty's memoir A Sweet Devouring:
"My mother took me to the Public Library and introduced me: 'Let her have any book she wants, except Elsie Dinsmore.' I looked for the book I couldn't have and it was a row. That was how I learned about the Series Books. The Five Little Peppers belonged, so did The Wizard of Oz, so did The Little Colonel, so did The Green Fairy Book. There were many of everything, instead of one. I wasn't coming to the end of reading, after all -- I was saved."
"My mother took me to the Public Library and introduced me: 'Let her have any book she wants, except Elsie Dinsmore.' I looked for the book I couldn't have and it was a row. That was how I learned about the Series Books. The Five Little Peppers belonged, so did The Wizard of Oz, so did The Little Colonel, so did The Green Fairy Book. There were many of everything, instead of one. I wasn't coming to the end of reading, after all -- I was saved."
72wonderY
"'What shall I do with all my books?' was the question; and the answer, 'Read them,' sobered the questioner. But if you cannot read them, at any rate handle them and, as it were, fondle them. Peer into them. Let them fall open where they will. Read on from the first sentence that arrests the eye. Then turn to another. Make a voyage of discovery, taking soundings of uncharted seas. Set them back on their shelves with your own hands. Arrange them on your own plan, so that if you do not know what is in them, you at least know where they are. If they cannot be your friends, let them at any rate be your acquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do not deny them at least a nod of recognition." — Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
(Author needs combined)
(Author needs combined)
8lilithcat
>7 2wonderY:
(Author needs combined)
Carefully!
There are multiple Winston Churchills, and that page has been made a mess of before.
(Author needs combined)
Carefully!
There are multiple Winston Churchills, and that page has been made a mess of before.
92wonderY
>8 lilithcat: I know. I have books by the American novelist.
I just don’t have time to mess with it now.
I just don’t have time to mess with it now.
10Charon07
One of my favorites, from If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
"You have forced your way through the shop past the thick barricade of Books You Haven't Read, which were frowning at you from the tables and shelves, trying to cow you. But you know you must never allow yourself to be awed, that among them there extend for acres and acres the Books You Needn't Read, the Books Made For Purposes Other Than Reading, Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong To The Category Of Books Read Before Being Written. And thus you pass the outer girdle of ramparts, but then you are attacked by the infantry of the Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered. With a rapid maneuver you bypass them and move into the phalanxes of the Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First, the Books Too Expensive Now And You'll Wait Till They're Remaindered, the Books ditto When They Come Out In Paperback, Books You Can Borrow From Somebody, Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too."
"You have forced your way through the shop past the thick barricade of Books You Haven't Read, which were frowning at you from the tables and shelves, trying to cow you. But you know you must never allow yourself to be awed, that among them there extend for acres and acres the Books You Needn't Read, the Books Made For Purposes Other Than Reading, Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong To The Category Of Books Read Before Being Written. And thus you pass the outer girdle of ramparts, but then you are attacked by the infantry of the Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered. With a rapid maneuver you bypass them and move into the phalanxes of the Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First, the Books Too Expensive Now And You'll Wait Till They're Remaindered, the Books ditto When They Come Out In Paperback, Books You Can Borrow From Somebody, Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too."
