My love affair with books began at age three. My mother said I drove her “completely nuts” asking her to read to me all the time, so she decided that the only way to get me off her back was to have me read to myself. This led to me winning a spelling bee in third grade and a reading contest in the fourth grade. Then the obsession started.
I discovered that I not only like reading books, but collecting them, and I’ve been doing so since I was a child. Yes, I still have all of my old Nancy Drew books. And my copy of The Borrowers that I won from that fourth grade reading contest. By the time I was twelve, I realized that a book was a precious object, not to be treated lightly.
It is also an object that is very difficult to part with!
Confession time: I actually don’t like public libraries. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they exist. My problem is that it’s impossible for me to simply borrow a book. I must own it. Anytime I check a book out of the library, I run to the Internet and buy it, sort of negating the “free” aspect of things. I spend more time in the library sale room than I ever do browsing the shelves.
Some of my favorite book and library quotes:
“Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.”
Henry Ward Beecher
* * *
“The closest we will ever come to an orderly universe is a good library.”
Ashleigh Brilliant
* * *
“No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
* * *
“A house without books is like a room without windows.”
Heinrich Mann
* * *
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”
Mark Twain
* * *
And my all-time favorite quote, which simply sums it all up:
“I cannot live without books.”
Thomas Jefferson writing to John Adams in 1815
My love affair with books began at age three. My mother said I drove her “completely nuts” asking her to read to me all the time, so she decided that the only way to get me off her back was to have me read to myself. This led to me winning a spelling bee in third grade and a reading contest in the fourth grade. Then the obsession started.
I discovered that I not only like reading books, but collecting them, and I’ve been doing so since I was a child. Yes, I still have all of my old Nancy Drew books. And my copy of The Borrowers that I won from that fourth grade reading contest. By the time I was twelve, I realized that a book was a precious object, not to be treated lightly.
It is also an object that is very difficult to part with!
Confession time: I actually don’t like public libraries. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they exist. My problem is that it’s impossible for me to simply borrow a book. I must own it. Anytime I check a book out of the library, I run to the Internet and buy it, sort of negating the “free” aspect of things. I spend more time in the library sale room than I ever do browsing the shelves.
Some of my favorite book and library quotes:
“Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.”
Henry Ward Beecher
* * *
“The closest we will ever come to an orderly universe is a good library.”
Ashleigh Brilliant
* * *
“No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
* * *
“A house without books is like a room without windows.”
Heinrich Mann
* * *
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”
Mark Twain
* * *
And my all-time favorite quote, which simply sums it all up:
“I cannot live without books.”
Thomas Jefferson writing to John Adams in 1815