I could never have dreamt that there were such goings-on in the world between the covers of books, such sandstorms and ice blasts of words, such staggering peace, such enormous laughter, such and so many blinding bright lights, splashing all over the pages in a million bits and pieces all of which were words, words, words, and each of which… Read more

“You don’t read Gatsby, I said, to learn whether adultery is good or bad but to learn about how complicated issues such as adultery and fidelity and marriage are. A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and… Read more

“People don’t read any more. It’s a sad state of affairs. Reading’s the only thing that allows you to use your imagination. When you watch films it’s someone else’s vision, isn’t it?” – Lemmy Kilmister, founder of the band Motorhead and author of several books about the band and the music industry I don’t agree that people don’t read anymore –… Read more

“For the sake of my bookish reputation I upgraded to Tolstoy and Steinbeck before I understood them, but my dark secret was that really, I preferred the junk. The Dragonriders of Pern, Flowers in the Attic, The Clan of the Cave Bear. This stuff was like my stash of Playboys under the mattress.” – Julie Powell, author of Julie and Julia… Read more

“These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice… and just as the touch of a button on our set will fill the room with music, so by taking down one of these volumes and opening it, one can call into range the voice of a… Read more

“We lusty bibliophiles know that reading, unlike just about anything else, is both good for you and loads of fun.” – Kevin Smokler The best thing about that quote is the phrase “lusty bibliophiles.” I adore it. I get so tired of book lovers being called bookworms or something similarly dismissive, as though we are beneath notice, holed up with a… Read more

“To prohibit the reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves.” – Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher and author Well, you know which category I think they fall into. I have long thought that the people who want to ban books are cowards. They are parents afraid to explain things to their children, preachers… Read more

“You have to remember that it is impossible to commit a crime while reading a book.” – John Waters, eccentric genius Yet another reason to encourage young people to read! (And perhaps some politicians, too.) Read more

“Few pleasures, for the true reader, rival the pleasure of browsing unhurriedly among books: old books, new books, library books, other people’s books, one’s own books – it does not matter whose or where. Simply to be among books, glancing at one here, reading a page from one over there, enjoying them all as objects to be touched, looked at,… Read more

“Allowing yourself to stop reading a book – at page 25, 50, or even, less frequently, a few chapters from the end – is a rite of passage in a reader’s life, the literary equivalent of a bar mitzvah or a communion, the moment at which you look at yourself and announce: Today I am an adult. I can make… Read more