Reading Quotations

"Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors." Joseph Addison (1672-1719)



Thomas Moore:
"The many great gardens of the world, of literature and poetry, of painting and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you don't want paradise, you are not human; and if you are not human, you don't have a soul."



"Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. "
- Henry Ward Beecher



"A library is a hospital for the mind. " Anonymous



"I divide all readers into two classes: Those who read to remember and those who read to forget. "
- William Phelps



"Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life." Mortimer J. Adler (b.1902)

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few are to be chewed and digested."
- Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

"He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes."
-Barrow

"All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality -- the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape."
- Arthur Christopher Benson

"A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators."
-Malcolm Bradbury (b.1932)

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." -Ray Bradbury (b.1920)

"There are three schoolmasters for everybody that will employ them -- the senses, intelligent companions, and books. "
-Henry Ward Beecher

"Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.
-François Mauriac

"October is crisp days and cool nights, a time to curl up around the dancing flames and sink into a good book."
- John Sinor





"I've never known any trouble that an hour's reading didn't assuage."


- Charles de Secondat





"I cannot live without books."


-Thomas Jefferson





"The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. " -James McCosh





"Outside of a dog a book is man's best. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."


-Groucho Marx





"I must say that I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book. "


-Groucho Marx





"A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. "


-Chinese Proverb





"Anyone who has a library and a garden wants for nothing."


-Cicero





"He who destroys a good book kills reason itself."


-John Milton





"Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep, for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as the latter."


-Paxton Hood





"Don't join the book burners... Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book. " Dwight D. Eisenhower





"Except a living man, there is nothing more wonderful than a book."


-Charles Kingsley





"To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all of the miseries of life. "


-W. Somerset Maugham





"Never read a book through merely because you have begun it."


-John Witherspoon





"A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever."


-Martin Tupper





"What's a book? Everything or nothing. The eye that sees it all. "


-Ralph Waldo Emerson





"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings."


-Heinrich Heine





"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends: they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers."


-Charles W. Eliot





"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. "


-Richard Steele





"I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke in me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive."


-Malcolm X





"If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads."


-Ralph Waldo Emerson





"In a very real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read."


- S. I. Hayakawa

Free Audio Books

LibriVox is a service that offers free audio readings of books available in the public domain for the United States.

You can search for specific texts here:



LibriVox Catalog Pages


Or browse using this link:




LibriVox Catalog Pages


ENJOY!

Free Online Library with Amazing Material

Any bibliophile is going to be jumping for joy over this site:



Internet Archive: Text Archive


ENJOY!

Surprised by Joy - William Wordsworth

Surprised by joy -impatient as the wind

I turned to share the transport - Oh! with whom

But Thee, deep buried in the silent tomb,

That spot which no vicissitude can find?

Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind -

But how could I forget thee? Through what power,

Even for the least division of an hour,

Have I been so beguiled as to be blind

To my most grievous loss? - That thought's return

Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore

Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,

Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;

That neither present time, nor years unborn,

Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.



Reflection:

Wordsworth wrote this poem about his deceased 4 year old daughter, Catharine.

Sometimes words can not capture the truth of a profoundly emotional experience...

we use the phrase,

"Words escape me."

But, in this work, Wordsworth summons up the power of maintaining two conflicting emotions in one moment. The polar opposites of deep grief and overwhelming joy.

This poem does not resolve the conflicted feelings. There is no morale at the end. No lessons to be learned.

Just a small taste of the sweetness and the bitterness of life.

A feast in a brief moment of time.

RESOURCES:

Wordsworth, William. 1888. Complete Poetical Works.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

I will admit that I selected this book out of the library because it is only 196 pages in length. I was looking around for a quick read and had recognized the book title.

Hollywood has already made a flick out of this one. Best to read this before producers mangle the text.

I was not prepared for the incredible nuggets of wisdom dropped throughout this book like a trail of diamonds. Each statement stands on its own, demanding to be examined and reread over and over.


So... a short read turned into a long feast as I savored every page of this work.


Here are some samples from the text:


" All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair."
(p.104 Mitch Albom, copyright 2003)


" Love, like rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a soaking joy. But sometimes, under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surfaceand must nourish from below, tending to its roots, keeping itself alive."
(p. 164, Mitch Albom, copyright 2003)


During the Twilight Zone Marathon over the New Year's weekend, Hubby and I got into a discussion about the lost art of storytelling. Rod Serling had stated that if you tell people a good story they will take the time to sit down and listen.


This book is a jewel of storytelling.


Get a copy, a nice cup of cocoa and be prepared to sit down for a beautiful evening with this book as your companion.


ENJOY!









RESOURCES:


Mitch Albom




The Five People You Meet In Heaven Book Club Discussion Questions - The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom - Book ...















Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too ––– even when you're in the dark. Even when you're falling.— Morrie Schwartz, TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom

Born Into Brothels: Photographs by the Children of Calcutta by Zana Briski

This is my thinking chair.

It is an old kitchen chair given to me by one of my sisters .

It was originally black with the paint faded and worn around the edges.

I saw a documentary called BORN INTO BROTHELS.




I was inspired by bountiful colors from the film and its companion book.
powered by frazy.com


The color scheme reminds me of the unwavering hope of so many of the children being raised in desperate circumstances.

Like a lotus flower blooming in the mud.

So, I painted my chair to symbolize hope.
To bloom from where I have been planted.

The seat cover is my first crochet project. It is pulled together from bits and scraps of yarn I had found laying about in the bottom of craft bins; reminds me of how I pull bits and scraps of information and emotions together when I write.

So there it is...
my thinking chair.
Inspired by the beuty of Zana Briski and the children of INdia.

And now I am going to sit here and think my thoughts.
And while I am thinking today, I dwell upon the wonder of a photographer who came to India. She came to India to photograph the women of the brothels, and fulfilled a need for the children of these women.
Here program is called Kids with Cameras.
The documentary about this work won the Academy Award in 2005.
Learn more by visiting the links below.
RESOURCES:
zana briski
Kids with Cameras

Dear Mr. Vonnegut

Dear Mr. Vonnegut,


Thank you for bringing enlightenment to my pathetically narrow minded self.
Thank you for humor that is the best teacher for lessons that are bitter to swallow.
Thank you for waking me up to the realities of this world... lessons I am only now beginning to appreciate.
Thank you for teaching me about asterisks.
I am going to miss you.

Sincerely,
A Devoted Reader



Entertainment News- Novelist Kurt Vonnegut Dies at Age 84 - AOL News

BBC NEWS Entertainment Kurt Vonnegut's last speech read


Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.— Kurt Vonnegut, HOCUS POCUS

Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry

Books are like friends.

You need to meet new friends during the proper time in your life.

Sometimes you are ready to greet a new friend and sometimes not.

The growth of a friendship depends on where you are in your life's journey.

The events in your life dictate whom you can relate to...

your circumstances often determine which people will "gel" with you.

You may have a wonderful book just waiting to make your acquaintance, but the timing is not right.

Read a book over and over, but there are only certain moments in your life when the book will "gel" and develop a relationship with your mind.


FAMILY MATTERS is a companion that spans the life journey from youth to old age. This story is ready to greet teenagers, young adults, middle aged and elderly alike.

This wonderful journey through the life of an extended Parsi family in Bombay during the mid 1990's is guaranteed to be a companion that will serve the reader well during many moments in one's life.

Rohinton Mistry has the talent of creating a bridge between cultures, drawing one into the intimate lives of a family that is just like all families... yet, offering the reader an opportunity to visit and breathe in the distinct heritage of this Indian family.

There are no great saints or sinners in this story.

The very core of this tale is the need for empathy... not to be confused with sympathy.
When we sympathize for another, we feel sorry for the individual, but remain separate. With empathy... we enter the person's very being. We feel what that individual is feeling and in doing so attain a step closer to enlightment.

Here is the backbone of this story in the author's words as told by the boisterous shop owner Mr. Kapur:

“Everyone underestimates their own life. Funny thing is, in the end, all our stories—your life, my life, old Husain’s life, they’re the same. In fact, no matter where you go in the world, there is only one important story: of youth, and loss, and yearning for redemption. So we tell the same story, over and over. Just the details are different” (p. 197).

The bottom line?

This novel is well worth your time. You may want to own two copies. One to keep and revisit, and another to pass on to your loved ones... because this is a book well worth sharing.

Loretta Kelly

Read more about Family Matters & author, Rohonton Mistry here:


Random House Books Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry

If you would like to visit my reading library please click the link below:

LibraryThing Catalog your books online