Favourite Books Quotes

I love character and voice, and my favourite books have been the ones in which I've become completely absorbed. ~ Helen Oyeyemi

When I was very young, one of my favourite books was Captain's Courageous and I suppose one of the reasons I loved it, it was a life I knew I should have had, learning all the different bits of the ship and learning to catch fish and rig sails and to -all the things that I never learned and I never learned the discipline, but I hungered after it. ~ Clive James

He often envied people who hadn't read his favourite books. They had such happiness before them. ~ Charles Finch

I tried to imagine myself as an old lady, grey and wrinkled, with my life behind me. And suddenly I knew what I wanted. Not in the details, but the broad sweep of things. I wanted my life to be like one of my favourite books: a big, fat novel, each page filled with smallwritten words as though the only way to cram so much life in was to make the writing really small. I wanted to be brave, take risks, make a difference, fall in love. The characters would be colourful, the landscapes exotic. I wanted my life to be a page-turner. ~ Helen Douglas

My favourite books are Charles Bukowski's 'Post Office' and 'Women.' ~ Alex Pettyfer

My favourite books series as a young child was the Frank L. Baum 'Wizard of Oz' series. They were beautifully written, oversized fat books with wonderful type and illustrations. ~ Anita Shreve

And just so you know, we might be having dinner together,
but this isn't a date," Neil says, completely straight-faced. "I just
don't want you to get too excited. I mean, your parents are going
to be there, so it would be really awkward if you were fawning over
me the whole time. ~ Rachel Lynn Solomon

Successive generations of middle-class parents used to foist their own favourite books on their children. But some time in the late Eighties it began to wane - not because children had lost interest in adorable animals but because most of it was available on useful, pacifying video. ~ Peter York

I read a lot of fantasy. I adored 'Anne of Green Gables'. But my favourite books as a child were probably Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House' series, about a pioneer family in the mid-19th-century American west. I often thought of them as I was writing 'The Last Runaway'. ~ Tracy Chevalier

There's this word in Japanese: tsundoku," Neil says suddenly.
"It's my favorite word in any language."
"What does it mean?"
He grins. "It means acquiring more books than you could ever
realistically read. ~ Rachel Lynn Solomon

When I was growing up, 'Anna Karenina' was one of my favourite books. ~ Paullina Simons

Two of my favourite books are Henry Miller's 'Tropic of Cancer' and 'Tropic of Capricorn.' ~ Lydia Lunch

He glances down at his arms. "I didn't even realize - am I expos-ing too much skin? I don't want to be parading myself in front of
you, taunting you with what you can't have. I have a hoodie in my
backpack. I can put it on if you're - "
"You're definitely better. We're leaving. ~ Rachel Lynn Solomon

Reread favourite books as if you are taking apart a clock ~ Lemony Snicket

Neil McNair has become my alarm clock, if alarm clocks had
freckles and knew all your insecurities. ~ Rachel Lynn Solomon

I know you can do this. You're the person who revolutionized
garbage collection at Westview, remember? ~ Rachel Lynn Solomon

My favourite books got happily-ever-afters - why couldn't I? ~ Rachel Lynn Solomon

I am sometimes asked to name my favourite books. The list changes, depending on my mood, the year, tricks played by memory. I might mention novels by Nabokov and Calvino and Tolkien on one occasion, by Fitzgerald and Baldwin and E.B. White on another. Camus often features, as do Tolstoy, Borges, Morrison and Manto. ~ Mohsin Hamid

I will never be able to read my mothers favourite books without thinking of her - an when I pass them on or recommend them, I'll know that some of what made her goes with them; that some of my mother will live on in those readers, readers who may be inspired to love the way loved and do their own version of what she did in the world. ~ Will Schwalbe

So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be. ~ Stephen Chbosky

A lot of my favourite books - I should say, not much happens in the books! It's much more about the points of view of the author more than anything else. ~ Patrick DeWitt

There are many things that men and women ought to think about, and must think about, in private, that they would not for a moment discuss in public. There are books on the proper conduct of women in certain most sacred relations of life, relations of life which are as holy as any, and which can be entered into in the presence of a holy God with no question of His approval, but which do not permit of public mention. . . .

That the Bible is a pure book is evidenced by the fact that it is not a favourite book in dens of infamy. But on the other hand, books that try to make out that the Bible is an obscene book, and that endeavour to keep people from reading it, are favourite books in dens of infamy. The unclean classes, both men and women, were devoted admirers of the most brilliant man this country ever produced who attacked what he called the "obscenity of the Bible." These unclean classes do not frequent Bible classes. They do frequent infidel lectures.

These infidel objectors to the book as an "obscene book" constantly betray their insincerity and hypocrisy. Colonel Ingersoll . . . objected to the Bible for telling these vile deeds "without a touch of humour." In other words, he did not object to telling stories of vice, if only a joke was made of the sin. Thank God, that is exactly what the Bible does not do--make a joke of sin. It makes sin hideous, so men who are obscene in their own hearts object to the Bible as being an obscene book. . . .

R.A. Torrey

what a life would be if i could just live in the mountains dense with greenery, sit by my window and read my favourite books. ~ Arushi Singh

I loved 'Middlemarch,' I think that's one of my favourite books of all time, actually. ~ Eleanor Catton

Rilke wrote in one of my favourite books [Letters to a Young Poet], "Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love." It takes courage to live as our true selves; especially when doing so can be faced with such unkindness. But I believe the more we show of ourselves, the more we make space for positive change in the world. I feel so grateful I get to be a part of a series that is contributing to that change. ~ Elise Bauman

One of my favourite books of all time: 'The Great Gatsby'. I just think it's so well written. ~ Danielle De Niese

Unfortunately writers take a very small part of the profit on their books, and I think in the e-book world there is a real danger they will take even less, unless they are vigilant and robust about protecting their own interests. ~ Graham Swift

It's often the case that the most strained moments in books are the very beginning and the very end - the getting in and the getting out. The ending, especially: it's awkward, as if the writer doesn't know when the book is over and nervously says it all again. ~ Robert Gottlieb

Some writers refuse to lay their heads peaceably on the pillow of literary history in order to give posterity good dreams.
review in London Review of Books, of the works of Knut Hamsun (26 nov 1998) ~ James Wood

Books can be immensely powerful. The ideas in them can change the way people think. Yet it was the Nazis and Stalin's officers who committed terrible crimes, and not Mein Kampf or the Communist Manifesto - and of course, the Manifesto contained many key ideas that are still relevant and important today, long after Stalin has gone. There is a crucial distinction between the book and its effect - it's crucial because if you talk about a book being harmful rather than its effect you begin to legitimise censorship. Abhorrent ideas need to be challenged by better ones, not banned. ~ John Farndon

I love writing about places I know well. Research is my least favourite thing, as it takes time from the story, but I can't write about a place I've never experienced. ~ Dixie Browning

Closing our books we walked into the air ~ Clere Parsons

We live and breathe words. ~ Cassandra Clare

The BBC's aim, along with schools, libraries and literacy groups, to involve more people in reading groups is an exciting idea and one that I hope will keep readers all over the UK exploring and sharing the wonderful world of books. ~ Tessa Jowell

Adam was charming and spoke perfect French. Like many anglophones in Montréal, he actually spoke French better than we did. They knew exactly which verbs to use in the same way that people knew which utensils to use while eating at a fancy dinner. It was very proper because they learned it from books. They didn't know slang or how to curse. They didn't know how to do anything other than be proper and reserved. It was state-sponsored, dry-clean-only French. ~ Heather O'Neill

I entered Princeton University as a graduate student in 1959, when the Department of Mathematics was housed in the old Fine Hall. This legendary facility was marvellous in stimulating interaction among the graduate students and between the graduate students and the faculty. The faculty offered few formal courses, and essentially none of them were at the beginning graduate level. Instead the students were expected to learn the necessary background material by reading books and papers and by organising seminars among themselves. It was a stimulating environment but not an easy one for a student like me, who had come with only a spotty background. Fortunately I had an excellent group of classmates, and in retrospect I think the "Princeton method" of that period was quite effective. ~ Phillip A. Griffiths

The brain is an organ of aggression, and there are many roads to this Rome of imagined conquests - so many that mental disorders, regardless of their particulars, often result in a derangement of our aggressive drive. Schizophrenics stand on the streetcorner screaming obscenely at passersby; depressives lie in their beds screaming mutely at themselves. Our gentle aggressions, the drive to be, prods us out of bed in the morning and draws us toward each other. And in each other we find what our aggressive brain desires: love. As we are wired for aggression, so we are wired to love. We are a lavishly loving species, aggressively sentimental. We are tirelessly in pursuit of fresh targets for our love. We love our children so long that they come to despise us for it. We love friends, books... We love answers. We love yesterday and next year. We love gods, for a god is there when all else fails, and God can keep all conduits of love alive - erotic, maternal, paternal, euphoric, infantile. ~ Natalie Angier

Loving Reading Hot Books w/ Hot Guys!!!
#hotguys #goodbooks ~ PA LLL

The only book in our home was the Bible. My parents forbade books. They thought I needed help because I wanted to be a writer! ~ Ken Bruen

I hate those movies, those books, where some guy gets to go off and have adventures and meanwhile the girl has to stay home and wait. I'm a feminist. I subscribe to Bust magazine, and I watch Buffy reruns. I don't believe in that kind of shit. ~ Kelly Link

If I can get on to my sofa and occupy myself for four hours, at intervals through the day, scribbling my notes, and able to read the books that belong to me, in that they clarify the density, and shape the formless mass within, life seems inconceivably rich ... ~ Alice James

I'm reading a lot of different books, but I always think I have to switch it up a little bit. It's like food - everything in moderation, same with my books, same with my reading. You read books that are good for you and you learn a lot of stuff, then you read 'Fifty Shades of Grey,' which is like candy. ~ Shay Mitchell

'To Kill A Mockingbird' is one of my favourite novels, my mum brought me up reading it, and it never fails to move me. ~ Jessica Marais

The world of literature has everything in it, and it refuses to leave anything out. I have read like a man on fire my whole life because the genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language. Because of them I rode with Don Quixote and danced with Anna Karenina at a ball in St. Petersburg and lassoed a steer in Lonesome Dove and had nightmares about slavery in Beloved and walked the streets of Dublin in Ulysses and made up a hundred stories in The Arabian Nights and saw my mother killed by a baseball in A Prayer for Owen Meany. I've been in ten thousand cities and have introduced myself to a hundred thousand strangers in my exuberant reading career ~ Pat Conroy

There can be funny moments during sad stories ~ Ammon Shea

No matter how many books you own, you can never own enough. Reading books is the best addiction anyone can have. ~ Love The Stacks Bookstore

In my new book, 'Birth,' my goal is to share the path I have traveled in the spiritual sphere and in the business and philanthropic sphere in order to reveal the essential connection between the two. ~ Shari Arison

I believe I belong to the last literary generation, the last generation, that is, for whom books are a religion. ~ Erica Jong

The only advice ... that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions. ~ Virginia Woolf

A book's a strange thing. It's ideas, feelings. It's fragile and complicated. You can't make them like refrigerators or cars. ~ Etienne Davodeau

books on Kinesic20 interview techniques. ~ Keith McCullough

It is uphill work writing books ~ Charles Darwin

'Harry Potter' made it cool to read children's fiction, and 'Twilight' did the same for a slightly older age group. What I'm seeing is mothers and daughters who love to read the same books. ~ L.A. Weatherly

Few books today are forgivable. Black on canvas, silence on the screen, an empty white sheet of paper are perhaps feasible. ~ R.D. Laing

My best ideas come to me at unexpected moments, like when I'm reading children's books to my kids (the pictures inspire me), shopping, driving somewhere, seeing different things. ~ Mary Engelbreit

The books all say that barracuda rarely eat people, but very few barracuda can read. ~ Dave Barry

Reading," I said. "Books. It's pretty sexy. I like women who read." - Rip ~ Kailin Gow