Quotes About Books

When I think back on all the refugee camps I visited, all over the world, the people always asked for the same thing: books. Sometimes even before medicine or shelter--they wanted books for their children. (quoting his mother)

That's one of the things books do. They help us talk. But they also give us something we all can talk about when we don't want to talk about ourselves.

I can't see giving up real books," she said. "And I love that I can give away my books after I've read them. Think of the first edition of The Magic Mountain I'm giving Nico. It was printed along with the first copy that went to Mann himself. It's got a history.

Mom agreed but pointed out that she'd been doing the same with others too—talking about books with my sister and brother and some of her friends. "I guess we're all in it together," she said. And I couldn't help but smile at the other meaning of the phrase. We're all in the end-of-our-life book club, whether we acknowledge it or not; each book we read may well be the last, each conversation the final one.

It was the women of afghanistan,my mother believed,who-once they'd been granted access to books and education- would be the salvation of the country

He remains for my family the perfect model of how you can be gone but ever present in the lives of people who loved you, in the same way that your favorite books stay with you for your entire life, no matter how long it's been since you turned the last page.

The Uncommon Reader, a novella by Alan Bennett

That's one of the things books do. They help us talk. But they also give us something we all can talk about when we don't want to talk about ourselves." Mom

they would soon be old enough to read The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit and Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, and eventually Iris Murdoch and Alan Bennett. They could all be readers, and maybe even uncommon ones.

I'm on a search—and have been, I now realize, all my life—to find books to help me make sense of the world, to help me become a better person, to help me get my head around the big questions that I have and answer some of the small ones while I'm at it.

remarked to Mom how all the books we were reading then shared not just length but a certain theme: fate and the effects of the choices people make. "I think most good books share that theme," Mom said.

I spend my life collecting books and sentences from them: I've sought alongside ones I've stumbled across, and sentences I've forced into my brain through rote memorization alongside ones that just found their way by themselves. At home, I'm a librarian, forever curating my collection. Outside of my apartment, I'm a bookseller—hand-selling my favorite books to everyone I encounter. There's a name for someone who behaves the way I do: Reader.

remains for my family the perfect model of how you can be gone but ever present in the lives of people who loved you, in the same way that your favorite books stay with you for your entire life, no matter how long it's been since you turned the last page.

There was one sure way to avoid being assigned an impromptu chore in our house—be it taking out the trash or cleaning your room—and that was to have your face buried in a book.

I guess we're all in it together," she said. And I couldn't help but smile at the other meaning of the phrase. We're all in the end-of-our-life book club, whether we acknowledge it or not; each book we read may well be the last, each conversation the final one. I

not. Both Mom and I had read it when it came out in 1999 and had recommended it to each other simultaneously. In

We'd both already read several novels by Tóibín: The Master and The Story of Night and The Blackwater Lightship.

There are certain books that I mean to read and keep stacked by my bedside. I even take them on trips. Some of my books should be awarded their own frequent-flier miles, they've traveled so much.

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin, had just been published. The other was a Pulitzer Prize–winner, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout,

I do believe that my Holy Grail of books could be out there—and I intend to keep reading until I find it. Of course, I'll keep reading after I do, too, because—well, because I love to read. I also believe that the Holy Grail of books won't be the greatest book ever written—I am certain there isn't such a thing. I think it will simply be a book that speaks perfectly to me at the moment I most need it and continues to speak to me for the rest of my life.

The Uncommon Reader,

She never wavered in her conviction that books are the most powerful tool in the human arsenal, that reading all kinds of books, in whatever format you choose—electronic (even though that wasn't for her) or printed, or audio—is the grandest entertainment, and also is how you take part in the human conversation.

books are the most powerful tool in the human arsenal, that reading all kinds of books, in whatever format you choose—electronic (even though that wasn't for her) or printed, or audio—is the grandest entertainment, and also is how you take part in the human conversation. Mom

Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good company, good conversation, are the happiest people in the world.