Only in Books: Writers, Readers & Bibliophiles on Their Passion

by Kevin J. Graffagnino (Editor)

When writers aren't writing books, they're often writing about books. ("A room without books is a body without a soul" --Cicero, p. 47), or about being a writer ("I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker," --Gwendolyn Brooks, p. 29), about technique ("Style and structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash" --Vladimir Nabokov, p. 165), about other writers ("Indeed there are few better ways of spending a hilarious evening then in recalling the worst lines in English poetry" --W. H. Auden, p. 8), or publishing ("Yes, I suppose some editors are failed writers--but so are most writers" --T.S. Eliot, p. 76), about the writing life ("I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning" --Peter deVries, p. 64), or reading ("He knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it" --Joseph Heller, p. 106).
Only in Books is the most complete and up-to-date collection of quotes in print on books and writing--over a thousand quotations, inspiring and amusing, familiar and surprising--guaranteed to delight book lovers everywhere. From Woody Allen to Emile Zola, Herman Melville to Toni Morrison, Only in Books presents the best of what has been said and written about books.
For anyone who agrees with Tomas Jefferson's exclamation "I cannot live without books" or with Franz Kafka, "A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our souls." Only in Books is the perfect book-side companion.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books

192 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1996

Reviews

[Bev]

From a child...all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out on books. ~Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Absolutely. 100%. From the time I was earning an allowance, I would drag my parents to bookstores and the book sections of stores and eagerly hand over my hard-earned cash for books. When I was old enough to walk downtown by myself (much younger than today's parents would even think about...), I would go to Mason's Rare & Used Bookstore during happy hour (for half-price books!) and stumble home with as many as I could carry. I had a library card of my own at the earliest age I could get one and, again, would take home as many as I could carry. Need I say it? I love books.

This book of quotations is meant for those of us who love books, the written word, and the bookstores and libraries that contain them. It is full of quotations about books, book lovers, and collectors Quotes about bookstores, libraries, and publishing houses. Quotes about authors, editors, and critics. If it's about books in way at all, there's a quote in here about it. And if there's anything I like almost as much as I like books, it's a good quote. And if it's a quote about books and/or bookish things, even better. So, when the local library was purging reference books, this was one of the books of quotations that came home with me.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.