Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. But a book is never just a book. – The Old Sage Bookshop in Prescott, Arizona

There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book; books are well written or badly written. – Oscar Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

[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