A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you and remains a friend. – Author unknown

[R]eading time is still limited no matter how many commitments of work or friendship I am willing to ditch in favor of the pages. – Francis Spufford (b.1964), “Confessions of an English Fiction Eater,” The Child

Books, not which afford us a cowering enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; such as an idle man cannot read, and a timid one would not be entertained by, which even make us dangerous to existing institution — such call I good books. – Henry David Thoreau

Nothing is more beautiful than a beautiful book. – Joseph Joubert (1754–1824), translated from French by George H. Calvert, 1