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1 " Will grinned. “Some of these books are dangerous,” he said. “It’s wise to be careful.”“One must always be careful of books,” said Tessa, “and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”“I’m not sure a book has ever changed me,” said Will. “Well, there is one volume that promises to teach one how to turn oneself into an entire flock of sheep—”“Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry,” said Tessa "
― Cassandra Clare , Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1)
2 " You read a book for the story, for each of its words," Gordy said, " and you draw your cartoons for the story, for each of the words and images. And, yeah, you need to take that seriously, but you should also read and draw because really good books and cartoons give you a boner." I was shocked:" Did you just say books should give me a boner?" " Yes, I did." " Are you serious?" " Yeah... don't you get excited about books?" " I don't think that you're supposed to get THAT excited about books." " You should get a boner! You have to get a boner!" Gordy shouted. " Come on!" We ran into the Reardan High School Library." Look at all these books," he said." There aren't that many," I said. It was a small library in a small high school in a small town." There are three thousand four hundred and twelve books here," Gordy said. " I know that because I counted them." " Okay, now you're officially a freak," I said." Yes, it's a small library. It's a tiny one. But if you read one of these books a day, it would still take you almost ten years to finish." " What's your point?" " The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know." Wow. That was a huge idea.Any town, even one as small as Reardan, was a place of mystery. And that meant Wellpinit, the smaller, Indian town, was also a place of mystery." Okay, so it's like each of these books is a mystery. Every book is a mystery. And if you read all of the books ever written, it's like you've read one giant mystery. And no matter how much you learn, you keep on learning so much more you need to learn." " Yes, yes, yes, yes," Gordy said. " Now doesn't that give you a boner?" " I am rock hard," I said. "
3 " So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone. "
― Roald Dahl , Matilda
4 " She never managed to find herself in these books no matter how hard she tried, exhuming traits from between the pages and donning them for an hour, a day, a week. We think in some ways, we have all done this our whole lives, searching for the book that will give us the keys to ourselves, let us into a wholly formed personality as though it were a furnished room to let. As though we could walk in and look around and say to the gray-haired landlady behind us, " We'll take it. "
5 " There is much you can learn from books and scrolls. These books are my friends, my companions. They make me laugh and cry and find meaning in life. "
― Christopher Paolini , Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle, #1)
6 " I put the books I was returning on the appropriate desk, and I began looking at the shelves of new arrivals. Most of them were some permutation on self-help. Going by how popular these books were and how often they were checked out, everyone in Bon Temps should have become perfect by now. "
― Charlaine Harris , From Dead to Worse (Sookie Stackhouse, #8)
7 " Books are never harmless...they either strengthen us or they weaken us in our faith. Some of them do this even as they entertain us, others as they teach us. In an invisible way their teaching penetrates into our hearts and souls, to continue its work inside, and we inhale the spirit of these books as healing or poisonous vapors. They can bring the greatest benefits and the greatest ruin, for from their ideas that they spread come the deeds of the future. "
― Peter Prange , The Philosopher's Kiss
8 " Its emptiness is more than the lack of living, breathing beings. It is the unread pages of the many books that reside on the shelves throughout the room I should hot have thought one could tell when books have gone unread, but after the company of Birchwood's well-loved library it is as if I can hear these books whispering, their pages grasping and reaching for an audience. "
― Michelle Zink , Prophecy of the Sisters (Prophecy of the Sisters, #1)
9 " Think of these books as doors. Open them and let their ideas stir your mind. Study them and they become weapons. "
10 " Child, all books are magic. Just think,' he said, 'about what books make people do. People go to war on the basis of what they read in books. They believe in " facts" just because they are written down. They decide to adopt political systems, to travel to one place rather than another, to give up their job and go on a great adventure, to love or to hate. All books have tremendous power. And power is magic.' 'But are these books really magic...? "
11 " I’m so glad to hear you are a reader, and you found these books to help you work through things on your own. "
― Paula Gruben , Umbilicus
12 " People don't read anymore. And, when they do, they don't read books like this one, but instead read books that depress them, because those books are seen as important. Somehow, the Librarians have successfully managed to convince most people in the Hushlands that they shouldn't read anything that isn't boring.It comes down to Biblioden the Scrivener's great vision for the world — a vision in which people never do anything abnormal, never dream, and never experience anything strange. His minions teach people to stop reading fun books, and instead focus on fantasy novels. That's what I call them, because these books keep people trapped. Keep them inside the nice little fantasy that they consider to be the 'real' world. A fantasy that tells them they don't need to try something new.After all, trying new things can be difficult. "
― Brandon Sanderson , Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones (Alcatraz, #2)
13 " Books of protectionThe Stellah Mupanduki books are full of protection of everything in your life. When you read them, then, you are protected physically, you are protected emotionally, you are protected in your environment, you are protected in your family, your children are protected, you are protected in your business and career, you are protected in your investments, you are protect in the work of your hands, you are protected in your home, you are protected in your hometown, in your country and in this whole world...You are protected as you travel…You are protected wherever you are and wherever you go...You are just protected in everything about you...You are protected with the wonderful presence of the Holy Spirit of God that comes into your life with an anointing presence as you read and absorb the works of God Almighty breathed in the Stellah Mupanduki books. Don't miss a single title, go for all of them in order to receive in fullness the true presence of the Holy Spirit coming to dwell in your body, soul and life with a wonderful healing protection. Buy these books and you will have nothing to worry about in your life...Says the Lord God Almighty. "
― Stellah Mupanduki , For The Sound Mind: Heal Me Lord For I Am Weak
14 " Much popular self-help literature normalizes sexism. Rather than linking habits of being, usually considered innate, to learned behavior that helps maintain and support male domination, they act as those these difference are not value laden or political but are rather inherent and mystical. In these books male inability and/or refusal to honestly express feelings is often talked about as a positive masculine virtue women should learn to accept rather than a learned habit of behavior that creates emotional isolation and alienation.... Self-help books that are anti-gender equality often present women's overinvestment in nurturance as a 'natural,' inherent quality rather than a learned approach to caregiving. Much fancy footwork takes place to make it seem that New Age mystical evocations of yin and yang, masculine and feminine androgyny, and so on, are not just the same old sexist stereotypes wrapped in more alluring and seductive packaging. "
― , All About Love: New Visions
15 " If one were to reply that those who compose these books write them as fictions, and therefore are not obliged to consider the fine points of truth, I should respond that the more truthful the fiction, the better it is, and the more probable and possible, the more pleasing. Fictional tales must engage the minds of those who read them, and by restraining exaggeration and moderating impossibility, they enthrall the spirit and thereby astonish, captivate, delight, and entertain, allowing wonder and joy to move together at the same pace; none of these things can be accomplished by fleeing verisimilitude and mimesis, which together constitute perfection in writing. "
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra , Don Quixote
16 " The stories we read in books, what's presented to us as being interesting - they have very little to do with real life as it's lived today. I'm not talking about straight-up escapism, your vampires, serial killers, codes hidden in paintings, and so on. I mean so-called serious literature. A boy goes hunting with his emotionally volatile father, a bereaved woman befriends an asylum seeker, a composer with a rare neurological disorder walks around New York, thinking about the nature of art. People looking back over their lives, people having revelations, people discovering meaning. Meaning, that's the big thing. The way these books have it, you trip over a rock you'll find some hidden meaning waiting there. Everyone's constantly on the verge of some soul-shaking transformation. And it's - if you'll forgive my language - it's bullshit. Modern people live in a state of distraction. They go from one distraction to the next, and that's how they like it. They don't transform, they don't stop to smell the roses, they don't sit around recollecting long passages of their childhood - Jesus, I can hardly remember what I was doing two days ago. My point is, people aren't waiting to be restored to some ineffable moment. They're not looking for meaning. That whole idea of the novel - that's finished. "
― Paul Murray , The Mark and the Void
17 " It has been said that when we pray, we speak to God; when we read, He speaks to us. Keeping this in mind, look for more in good books than entertainment. You will find in these books much that applies to you, and even in good novels, you will find many points that can help you become a finer person and a better Christian. "
― , Catholic Girl's Manual and Sunday Missal
18 " When I have money, I invest in buying books. My personal development by reading these books is my greatest pleasure. "
― Lailah Gifty Akita
19 " At their core, Tiger Eyes, Forever..., and Sally J. Freeman are all books about teenage issues, but to an adult reader, the parents' story lines seem to almost overshadow their daughters. I'm bringing an entirely new set of experiences to these novels now, and my reward is a fresh set of story lines that i missed the first time around. I'm sure that in twenty or thirty years I'll read these books again and completely identify with all the grandparent characteristics. That's the wonderful thing about Judy Blume - you can revisit her stories at any stage in life and find a character who strikes a deep chord of recognition. I've been there, I'm in the middle of this, someday that'll be me. The same characters, yet somehow completely different. (Beth Kendrick) "
― Jennifer O'Connell , Everything I Needed to Know about Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume
20 " Sadly as some old mediaeval knightGazed at the arms he could no longer wield,The sword two-handed and the shining shieldSuspended in the hall, and full in sight,While secret longings for the lost delightOf tourney or adventure in the fieldCame over him, and tears but half concealedTrembled and fell upon his beard of white,So I behold these books upon their shelf,My ornaments and arms of other days;Not wholly useless, though no longer used,For they remind me of my other self,Younger and stronger, and the pleasant waysIn which I walked, now clouded and confused. "
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow