“The reading habit is most valuable in life. I mean by that the practice of using a little time, say half an hour a day, in the systematic reading of worthwhile literature. The mind is opened to precious fields of thought; the achievements of the ages become ours; even the future takes form. As the mind and spirit are fed by well chosen reading, comfort, peace and understanding come to the soul. Those who have not tried it, have missed a keen and easily accessible joy.

“Moreover a person who engages in such a regular daily reading, if only a few minutes a day, in the course of a few years becomes a learned (wo)man. But it must be a regular daily habit. … Some of the best educated (wo)men that I have ever met have never been to college but have acquired the habit of daily reading of good books for a few minutes a day.”  ~John A. Widtsoe

“There’s nothing to match curling up with a good book when there’s a repair job to be done around the house.”  ~Joe Ryan

“My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter.”  ~Thomas Helm

“Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book.”  ~Author Unknown

“A good book should leave you… slightly exhausted at the end.  You live several lives while reading it.”  ~William Styron, interview, Writers at Work, 1958

“Alvarez chose to write a novel rather than a biography because whe was less interested in producing  a historical document than “finding a way to travel through the human heart’”.

“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”  ~Anna Quindlen, “Enough Bookshelves,” New York Times, 7 August 1991

“We read to know we are not alone.” ~C.S. Lewis