This one made me laugh – back when I was spending a lot of time in Amsterdam for work, the first place I learned to find on my own (after my office) was the American Book Center on the Spui. Spent a lot of lovely weekend mornings there. “The only thing you absolutely have to know is the location of… Read more

This is particularly true in this day and age, when you can take your books with you on a pad, on a CD, on your phone, etc. “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” – Stephen King, one of the most prolific American horror writers of all time Read more

“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.” – Mason Cooley Read more

“I love to read. I wish I could advise more people to read. There’s a whole new world in books. If you can’t afford to travel, you travel mentally through reading. You can see anything and go any place you want to in reading.”  – Michael Jackson, the King of Pop Read more

I think this explains why so many lonely kids lose themselves in books. “The world was a terrible place, cruel, pitiless, dark as a bad dream. Not a good place to live. Only in books could you find pity, comfort, happiness – and love. Books loved anyone who opened them, they gave you security and friendship and didn’t ask anything… Read more

This is so true for me – sometimes, you find a book or a story at just the right time and it doesn’t just speak, it shouts to you and it stays with you always. “Stories you read when you’re the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes… Read more

“There are too many books I haven’t read, too many places I haven’t seen, too many memories I haven’t kept long enough.”  – Irwin Shaw, American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author Read more

“If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the… Read more

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only once.” – George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones author Read more

This is so true! I can easily share a companionable afternoon with almost anyone, as long as we are each reading our own books. “Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading!” – Ranier Maria Rilke, Austrian poet and novelist Read more