Books and Reading: A Book of Quotations
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About this ebook
Over 450 memorable quotes about books and reading fill these pages—with provocative declarations from Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, Andrew Carnegie, Theodore Roosevelt, James Thurber, Anna Quindlen, and Oprah Winfrey, and scores of other writers, political figures, and celebrities.
A handy aid for speech writers and public speakers, this entertaining collection will also delight general readers.
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Reviews for Books and Reading
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- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What a nice collection of quotes about reading and books! Inexpensive little book on Amazon, to boot.
Book preview
Books and Reading - Dover Publications
DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS
GENERAL EDITOR: PAUL NEGRI
EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: TOM CRAWFORD
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by Bill Bradfield All rights reserved under Pan American and International Copyright Conventions.
Bibliographical Note
Books and Reading: A Book of Quotations is a new work, first published by Dover Publications, Inc., in 2002.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Books and reading : a book of quotations / [compiled by] Bill Bradfield.
p. cm.
9780486111872
1. Books and reading–Quotations, maxims, etc. I. Bradfield, Bill, 1927–
PN6084.B65 B65 2002
028—dc21
2002025660
Manufactured in the United States of America
Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Note
DOVER • THRIFT • EDITIONS
Note
IN AN AGE of proliferating electronic books, videos, DVDs, and other non-print media, the traditional book still retains its peculiar power and appeal. Its portability, relatively low cost, and comforting tactile presence set the book apart. After all, it’s hard to curl up with a computer monitor. Moreover, a well-made book, carefully designed, with fine binding, well-chosen typography and illustrations, can be a work of art. As George Bernard Shaw put it, There is nothing on earth more exquisite than a bonny book, with well-placed columns of rich black writing in beautiful borders, and illuminated pictures cunningly inset.
Inextricably intertwined with the book are the pleasures and benefits of reading. Without leaving your chair, you can travel the world, engage in a silent dialogue with the greatest minds in history, plumb the sublime depths of Shakespeare’s poetry, or the depths of the sea with Jules Verne, acquire a skill, enjoy the world’s great art, discover a wealth of facts and information, and perhaps most important, discover yourself. Anna Quindlen puts it this way: In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own. I learned who I was and who I wanted to be, what I might aspire to, and what I might dare to dream about my world and myself.
The. above quotations, along with 448 others, will be found in this carefully selected collection of trenchant observations spanning many centuries and a broad range of readers—from Cicero to Oprah Winfrey. Ranging from hilarious to heartfelt, from zany to profound, these quotations are not only wonderful browsing material for book lovers, they offer a mine of usable material in which teachers, librarians, public speakers—anyone in need of a bibliophilic bon mot—can find just the right remark. The quotations are arranged alphabetically by author for ease of reference.
A book never bores you because you can always lay it down before it becomes a bore.
LYMAN ABBOTT
When I was playing professional basketball, all I had time and energy to do when I was on the road was read. We might have a two-hour practice during the day and then the rest of the time we’d be sitting around the hotel, so I filled those hours with reading. I realized I had to rest a lot and eat well in order to play basketball well, so I wasn’t a huge party animal on the road ... Reading helped me pass the time in a productive way that kept my mind expanding, and kept adding something to my life.
KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR
I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else along the way.
FRANKLIN P. ADAMS
Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.
. JOSEPH ADDISON
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.
The great books are not merely a record of civilization, but the most potent civilizing force in the world today.
MORTIMER ADLER
Rolando de Aguiar, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Ames Department Stores, a retail discount chain in the northeastern U.S., told a Wall Street Journal columnist that he’s putting much more time into reading and networking to keep, up with new trends, adding: "You have to be conscious of doing it on a daily basis. A few years ago you could take a Peter Drucker book and read it and that could drive you for the next five years. Now you take a dot.com book and read it and you better read another one six months from now because it will be out of date."
ROLANDO DE AGUIAR
Read the great stuff but read the stuff that isn’t so great, too. Great stuff is very discouraging. If you read only Beckett and Chekhov, you’ll go away and only deliver telegrams for Western Union.
EDWARD ALBEE
I get most of my story ideas poking about in library stacks, on the lookout for books that interest me ... Reading is serendipitous. The past is there to be mined, and the quirky stories are the ones to pursue.
CAROLINE ALEXANDER, offering advice
to aspiring nonfiction authors
He writes so well he makes me feel like putting my quill back in my goose.
FRED ALLEN
I read a book twice as fast as anybody else. First I read the beginning, and then I read the ending, and then I start in the middle and