Author Lois Winston writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack
Crafting Mystery series (sound familiar? Hint: it’s the series about moi!) as
well as romance, romantic suspense, women’s fiction, and non-fiction under her
own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Her most recent release is Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, the third book in the series about moi. Today she stops by to share with us some very special quotes about the
value of reading. Learn more about Lois at her website and her Emma Carlyle website. – AP
25 Quotes on the Worth of Reading
When I was a child, I
escaped into books. They were my refuge from a childhood that was less than
ideal. So it always comes as a shock to me when people tell me they don’t read.
I can’t imagine a world without books to read, whether they be physical books
or ebooks. Here are some thoughts on the topic by others:
1. You know you've read a
good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a
friend. -- Paul Sweeney
2. Books are the quietest
and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of
counselors, and the most patient of teachers. -- Charles William Eliot
3. What really
knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the
author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up
on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though. --
J.D. Salinger
4. 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. -- Mortimer J. Adler
5. Books are the plane,
and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They
are home. -- Anna Quindlen
6. You think your pain and
your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you
read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were
the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who
had ever been alive. -- James Baldwin
7. The best moments
in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of
looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And
now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone
even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours --
Alan Bennett
8. Today a reader,
tomorrow a leader. -- Margaret Fuller
9. A book is like a
garden carried in the pocket. -- Chinese Proverb
10. Books serve to
show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all.
-- Abraham Lincoln
11. So please, oh PLEASE,
we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A
lovely bookshelf on the wall. -- Roald Dahl
12. To read without
reflecting is like eating without digesting. -- Edmund Burke
13. A house without books
is like a room without windows. --
Heinrich Mann
14. A truly good book
teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence
living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting. -- Henry
David Thoreau
15. To
read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new friend; to
read it for a second time is to meet an old one. -- Chinese Saying
16.
Give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books, and you give me an
interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three, and
you give me a dangerous enemy mind. -- Anne Rice
17.
The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts
when all other pleasures fade. -- Anthony Trollope
18.
We read to know we are not alone. -- C.S. Lewis
19.
No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or
surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance. – Confucius
20.
The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of the
past centuries. – Descartes
21.
The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the
more places you’ll go. -- Dr. Seuss
22.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few are to be
chewed and digested. -- Francis Bacon
23.
Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. -- Frederick Douglass
24.
Read in order to live. -- Gustave Flaubert
25.
A book is the most effective weapon against intolerance and ignorance. --
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Revenge of the Crafty Corpse
Anastasia Pollack’s dead louse of a spouse has left her with
more bills than you can shake a crochet hook at, and teaching craft classes at
her mother-in-law’s assisted living center seems like a harmless way to
supplement her meager income. But when Lyndella Wegner—a 98-year-old
know-it-all with a penchant for ruffles and lace—turns up dead, Anastasia’s
cantankerous mother-in-law becomes the prime suspect in her murder. Upon
discovering that Lyndella’s scandalous craft projects—and her scandalous behavior—made
her plenty of enemies, Anastasia sets out to find the real killer before her
mother-in-law ends up behind bars.
15 comments:
Thanks for this wonderful list !! I find it impossible to imagine a life without reading!!! Thelma Straw
That makes two of us, Thelma! Thanks for stopping by.
As a child and young adult, I loved to read. Then I got Lyme disease, and reading turned into hard work. It's still hard, but I do it in hopes that someday it will, once again, come easily.
It could be that those who don't enjoy reading are simply not good at it. The words fall out of their heads, and they have to reread each line 5, 6, 7 times before it finds something to stick to. If I'd grown up with this problem rather than acquiring it later in life, I might hate to read, too.
He ate and drank the precious words,
His spirit grew robust;
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was dust.
He danced along the dingy days,
And this bequest of wings
Was but a book. What liberty
A loosened spirit brings!
This was one of my all-time favorite poems. As a young attorney, I put a copy of it on the wall of my office. Then, one day, a colleague stuck his face through my door and said, "Hey, did you know that about ninety percent of all Emily Dickinson poems can be sung to the tune of 'The Yellow Rose of Texas?'"
Ruinous! I couldn't read Dickinson's work without that dang tune popping into my head after that. But the underlying message about books remains strong.
Nancy, I'm sure that's true for some people. Others were never taught to read properly. And still others want more instant gratification and turn to TV, the movies and video games for their dose of fiction.
Piper, I'll bet that same guy was first in line with the pregnancy horror tales whenever someone in the office announced she was expecting a baby. Some people take great pleasure in bursting other people's bubbles.
Lois, thanks for pulling these together Some I'd heard before; others were brand new. Good to be reminded of how important what we do is. Even "romance" writers make a difference in peoples' lives.
Wonderful. Particularly loved the Chinese proverb.
Since a child, I'd devour books.In my teens, I was legally blind for four years, at a time when audio books didn't exist. Although friends and family members read loud to me, I hungered for the intimacy of being alone with a book. After sight was restored in one eye, I'm never without the company of books.
I'm grateful for those blind years. Thy give me such a profound gratitude for the privilege and pleasure of reading.
Marsha, I think romance authors make a profound difference in many people's lives.
Rayne, I'm so glad your sight was restored! I can't imagine how difficult those four years must have been for you.
I loved to read as a kid, and I still do. I grew up not watching much TV or many movies, so books were my window to the world of fiction.
Now I watch plenty of movies and TV, but I still enjoy to read.
While I love many of these quotes, you left out a couple of my favorites.
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. - Mark Twain
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read. Groucho Marx.
Thanks for adding to the list, Mark!
Loved all the comments.
I too love to read and have since childhood. When my eyes were damaged, reading with a lazy eye was very trying...but I persevered till I trained my brain to use it as the other eye does not allow me to see well enough to read. It takes me longer to read something but it's worth every minute..:)
Beaj, glad you were able to overcome the lazy eye in order to enjoy one of life's great pleasures!
Great list! Thanks for sharing :)
I agree with number one. I like to re-read books. It's just like having old friends over for a visit. Thanks for posting this list.
Thanks for stopping by, Joanne and Angela!
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