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I need your help with a quote and I’m sure one of you will remember the quote I’m looking for.

Rolf is busy sorting our bookshelves. We have hundreds of books, and every once in a while, he wants to cull.

Just because I haven’t reread a book in a few years does not mean I want to get rid of it. Even if I never read that book again, there is something about seeing it there, lined up with all my other books.

For one thing, I like being my own personal library. For another, I like it when my kids (adults) come home and find a book they used to read. They pull it off the shelves and flip through the pages, as if they are saying hello to an old friend.

Of course, there are books we outgrow. Usually, they are how-to books. How to cook without fat. How to cook without sugar. How to cook without cooking. Fad books. And, sometimes, even those books are worth keeping, as a way of measuring how we are no longer influenced by the current hype.

From Webster’s —

to cull

But the other books? Why do we keep them?

To remember the pleasure we had when we were inside that story? To remember where we were in our lives at the time we read that book? To have those books available for others to find and perhaps borrow, so that we can both know that story and talk about it?

I remember reading a quote somewhere that answered this for me. Do you know the quote I’m talking about?

Even if you don’t remember that specific quote, tell me your favourite quote that has to do with books and reading. I want to collect a whole bunch of book quotes and keep them here.

Some of my favourite quotes about books

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
— Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

 “Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.”
— Mark Twain

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
— Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

Now tell me your favourites.

And I really hope one of you remembers the quote about keeping books.

library from bigstockphoto.com #101638283