Thursday, March 29, 2012

25 QUOTES ON THE WORTH OF READING


seen on the NY subway: stranger reading Lois Winston's ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN
 from Underground New York Public Library
by Lois Winston

While I was pondering what to write for today’s blog post, I received an email that contained a group of quotes about the value of reading. I needed to look no further for a blog topic. Here are some of the quotes sent to me, along with some others I’ve come across. Let’s hear it for reading!

1. You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. -- Paul Sweeney

2. Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.  -- Charles William Eliot

3.  What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though. -- J.D. Salinger

4. In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. -- Mortimer J. Adler

5. Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home. -- Anna Quindlen

6. You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive. -- James Baldwin

7. The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours -- Alan Bennett

8. Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. -- Margaret Fuller

9. A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.  -- Chinese Proverb

10. Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all.  -- Abraham Lincoln

11. So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall. -- Roald Dahl

12. To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting. -- Edmund Burke

13. A house without books is like a room without windows. --  Heinrich Mann

14. A truly good book teaches me better than to read it.  I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.  -- Henry David Thoreau

15. To read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new friend; to read it for a second time is to meet an old one.  -- Chinese Saying

16. Give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books, and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three, and you give me a dangerous enemy mind. -- Anne Rice

17. The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade. -- Anthony Trollope

18. We read to know we are not alone. -- C.S. Lewis

19. No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance. -- Confucius

20. The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of the past centuries. -- Descartes

21. The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. -- Dr. Seuss

22. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few are to be chewed and digested. -- Francis Bacon

23. Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. -- Frederick Douglass

24. Read in order to live. -- Gustave Flaubert

25. A book is the most effective weapon against intolerance and ignorance. -- Lyndon Baines Johnson

Lois Winston writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series. The first book, Assault With A Deadly Glue Gun, was a January 2011 release and received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Death by Killer Mop Doll was released this past January. Visit Lois at http://www.loiswinston.com and Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog, http://anastasiapollack.blogspot.com.

15 comments:

Robin Allen said...

Hooray for reading! Thanks for sharing these, Lois. I'm going to copy a few of them into my commonplace book.

Very nice picture of your book out in the wild.

Anonymous said...

These quotes made my day!!! Thanks and let's hear it for reading!

Kathleen Kaska said...

That a great post, Lois. I especially like J.D. Salinger's quote.

jenny milchman said...

This is a keeper! I'm going to print it out and give it to my daughter for a birthday card. Thanks for compiling, Lois. Like Kathleen, I love the Salinger quote. And Roald Dahl's, too!

Beth Groundwater said...

Most authors who love to write were first readers who love to read. My TBR stack usually has about 30 books on it at given time, and I have an even longer list of to-read books at Goodreads. Almost makes me wish I didn't spend so much time writing, so I could read more. Almost ...

Unknown said...

Oh fun! I'm printing this out (may steal a few, too, for my FB author's page). Thanks, Lois - a post to savor, and reread for inspiration with the writing get's tough.

Lois Winston said...

Thanks, all! Glad you enjoyed them.

Jill Archer said...

Enjoyed reading these -- and the picture at the beginning of the post!

Lois Winston said...

Thanks, Jill!

Radine Trees Nehring said...

These are great. I enjoyed visiting a few old friends, learning who said a few piquant things I'd never seen attributed before, and meeting lots of new ideas to savor.

Beth, glad to know someone else has a large and growing TBR pile. 30-40 sounds about right to me, too.

Lois Winston said...

Thanks, Radine. As for TBR piles, I don't even count the stacks any more. Let's just say they're threatening to take over the house. Speaking of quotes, does anyone know who first said, "So many books, so little time"?

Kathleen Ernst said...

You picked some great ones! I can't even pick a favorite.

Lois Winston said...

Kathleen, my favorite depends on my mood. ;-)

Linda Hull said...

Great post. Kept me motivated to write today.

Lois Winston said...

Always happy to inspire another author, Linda. :-)