Bookishness Quotes

To whom do books belong? The books we read and the books we write are both ours and not ours. They're also theirs. ~ Pamela Paul

Great is bookishness and the charm of books. ~ Augustine Birrell

Reading books again? Books will ruin your sword eye, boy. ~ George R R Martin

I was impressed for the ten thousandth time by the fact that literature illuminates life only for those to whom books are a necessity. Books are unconvertible assets, to be passed on only to those who possess them already. ~ Anthony Powell

All of us are writers reading other people's writing, turning pages or clicking to the next screen with pleasure and admiration. All of us absorb other people's words, feeling like we have gotten to know the authors personally in our own ways, even if just a tiny bit. True, we may also harbor jealousy or resentment, disbelief or disappointment. We may wish we had written those words ourselves or berate ourselves for knowing we never could or sigh with relief that we didn't, but thank goodness someone else has. ~ Pamela Paul

However many reproductions I might supply, illustrations taken out of the apparatus of the individual bound book can never convey the bookishness of a book, the pace and scale and satisfaction of it, no more than a fish scale can substitute for a real, live unblinking carp, or a slice of honey-glazed ham can the suggest the respectable professional pig. ~ Gregory MacGuire

This is every reader's catch-22: the more you read, the more you realize you haven't read; the more you yearn to read more, the more you understand that you have, in fact, read nothing. There is no way to finish, and perhaps that shouldn't be the goal. ~ Pamela Paul

Bookishness, an unfortunate trait for a girl, especially one who is not nice to look at. ~ Claire Holden Rothman

Books gnaw at me from around the edges of my life, demanding more time and attention. I am always left hungry. ~ Pamela Paul

Maybe the Kindle was the Bowflex of bookishness: something expensive that, when you commit to it, forces you to do more of whatever it is you think you should be doing more of. ~ Nicholson Baker

Bookishness, highest literacy, every technique of cultural propaganda and training not only can accompany bestiality and oppression and despotism but at certain points foster it. ~ George Steiner