A library is thought in cold storage.

A library is thought in cold storage.

Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a read more

Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.

A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images.

A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images.

Deep versed in books and shallow in himself.

Deep versed in books and shallow in himself.

Literary imagination is an aesthetic object offered by a writer to a lover of books.

Literary imagination is an aesthetic object offered by a writer to a lover of books.

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.

All books grow homilies by time; they are
Temples, at once, and Landmarks.

All books grow homilies by time; they are
Temples, at once, and Landmarks.

I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.

I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.

Books, books, books!
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in read more

Books, books, books!
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in my father's name;
Piled high, packed large,--where, creeping in and out
Among the giant fossils of my past,
Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs
Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there
At this or that box, pulling through the gap,
In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy,
The first book first. And how I felt it beat
Under my pillow, in the morning's dark,
An hour before the sun would let me read!
My books!
At last, because the time was ripe,
I chanced upon the poets.