My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter.

My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter.

Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a read more

Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.

Some books are to be tasted; others swallowed; and some to be chewed and digested.

Some books are to be tasted; others swallowed; and some to be chewed and digested.

Books are delightful when prosperity happily smiles; when
adversity threatens, they are inseparable comforters. They give
strength to read more

Books are delightful when prosperity happily smiles; when
adversity threatens, they are inseparable comforters. They give
strength to human compacts, nor are grave opinions brought
forward without books. Arts and sciences, the benefits of which
no mind can calculate. depend upon books.

One can live with the thought of one's own death. It is the thought of the death of the words read more

One can live with the thought of one's own death. It is the thought of the death of the words and books that is terrifying for that is the deeper extinction.

Once we have learned to read, meaning of words can somehow register without consciousness.

Once we have learned to read, meaning of words can somehow register without consciousness.

We get no good
By being ungenerous, even to a book,
And calculating profits--so much help
read more

We get no good
By being ungenerous, even to a book,
And calculating profits--so much help
By so much reading. It is rather when
We gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge
Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound,
Impassioned for its beauty, and salt of truth--
'Tis then we get the right good from a book.

All books grow homilies by time; they are
Temples, at once, and Landmarks.

All books grow homilies by time; they are
Temples, at once, and Landmarks.

A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in read more

A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way