#books

"Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic. As one tends the graves of the dead, so I tend the books. And every day I open a volume or two, read a few lines or pages, allow the voices of the forgotten dead to resonate inside my head."

"Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don't you agree?"

"But at night, when the library lamps are lit, the outside world disappears and nothing but the space of books remains in existence."

"I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it."

"Reading was not a fallback position for her but an ideal state of being."

"Libraries raised me."

"After that, the book will fade, the way all books fade in your mind. But I hope you will remember this:A man walking fast down a dark lonely street. Quick steps and hard breathing, all wonder and need. A bell above a door and the tinkle it makes. A clerk and a ladder and warm golden light, and then: the right book exactly, at exactly the right time."

"يظن الغمر أن الكتب تهدى ... ... أخاً فهم لإدراك العلوموما يدرى الجهول بأن فيها ... ... غوامض حيرت عقل الفهيمإذا رمت العلوم بغير شيخ ... ... ضللت عن الصراط المستقيموتلتبس الأمور عليك حتى ... ... تصير أضل من 'توما الحكيم"

"It looked like the sort of book described in library catalogues as 'slightly foxed', although it would be more honest to admit that it looked as though it had been badgered, wolved and possibly beared as well."

"Without books, the world will be void."

"For once the disease of reading has laid upon the system it weakens so that it falls an easy prey to that other scourge which dwells in the ink pot and festers in the quill. The wretch takes to writing."

"Life is too short to read books that I'm not enjoying."

"Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading."

"One of the convenient things about literature is that, despite copyrights [...] a book belongs to the reader as well as to the writer."

"The problem with books is that they end."

"I just got out of the hospital. I was in a speed reading accident. I hit a book mark and flew across the room."

"A big book is like a serious relationship; it requires a commitment. Not only that, but there's no guarantee that you will enjoy it, or that it will have a happy ending. Kind of like going out with a girl, having to spend time every day with her - with absolutely no guarantee of nailing her in the end. No thanks."

"My arms are killing me. I didn't know words could be so heavy."

"Never trust a man who reads only one book."

"We are never allowed to forget that some books are badly written; we should remember that sometimes they're badly read, too."