The Bookshelf: A Quote Collection

 

Great readers make great writers.  I know this not only because artists inspire each other, but also because authors so often take a moment to honour books in their own books. I have found many snippets where a story sings the praises of the joys of reading, but for today I will limit myself to five examples.

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He wandered from room to room, perusing books that struck his interest and others that didn’t. He couldn’t resist pulling them from the shelf to smell them, to feel their pages, and to skim their contents no matter what the books were about.

The Monster in the Hollows, Andrew Peterson

 

Like every other room in the old house, Mr. Benedict’s study was crammed with books. Books on shelves that rose to the height ceiling, books in stacks on the floor, books holding up a potted violet in desperate need of water. On four chairs arranged before an oak desk rested still more books—which Rhonda and the pencil woman removed so the children could sit—and on the desk itself, piled in precarious, leaning towers, were even more.

The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart

 

There, sure enough, was Heidi, sitting beside Clara and reading aloud to her, evidently herself very much surprised, and growing more and more delighted with the new world that was now open to her as the black letters grew alive and turned into men and things and exciting stories. That same evening Heidi found the large book with the beautiful pictures lying on her plate when she took her place at the table, and when she looked questioningly at the grandmother, the latter nodded kindly to her and said, “Yes, it’s yours now.”

Heidi, Johanna Spyri

 

Solomon said—

Books are revered. They proclaim

The divine order to whoever listens a little.

They strengthen and restore reason,

Cheer each human heart

Through life’s miseries.

Saturn said—

He who tastes books’ insight is bold;

He who takes on their power is always the wiser.

The Second Dialogue of Solomon and Saturn

 

And to all this my friend the publisher made this very deep and effective reply, “Well, if a man is not to believe in himself, in what is he to believe?” After a long pause I replied, “I will go home and write a book in answer to that question.” This is the book that I have written in answer to it.

Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton