My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out.

My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out.

My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter.

My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter.

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

That is a good book which is opened with expectation and closed in profit.

That is a good book which is opened with expectation and closed in profit.

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.

The flood of print has turned reading into a process of gulping rather than savoring.

The flood of print has turned reading into a process of gulping rather than savoring.

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.

The proper study of mankind is books.

The proper study of mankind is books.

If a law were passed giving six months to every writer of a first book, only the good ones would read more

If a law were passed giving six months to every writer of a first book, only the good ones would do it.