Or to be more precise ... quotes about reading, books and writing.
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| Books, the inspiration for many quotes. |
Homer: “Marge, I'm bored.”
Marge: “Why don't you read something?”
Homer: “Because I'm trying to reduce my boredom.”
Thankfully, I don't suffer from Homer's foolish attitude, because in my opinion, books are brilliant!
This coming Thursday is officially World Book Day so in honour of World Book Day, here's a round-up of famous quotes about books and reading...
1) "Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." ...P.J. O’Rourke
From a humorous point of view I quite like this quote, but in reality I totally disagree with its message because if you read something just to try and look cool then you're an idiot. True coolness comes from not caring what people think of you, so if you want to be really cool and really look good, then read whatever you want and don't worry about what other people think.
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| Running is exercise for the body, just as reading is exercise for the mind. |
2) "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." ...Joseph Addison
I used to love exercising when I was younger, but I now spend far more time reading than in the gym, and reading has the added bonus that you've got less chance of picking up injuries!
3) "No two persons ever read the same book." ...Edmund Wilson
This is clearly not true, as I often buy books from charity shops which have been previously owned, so unless all of the previous owners are buying books and then giving them to charity shops without reading them, then I think Edmund Wilson has got his facts wrong.
Oh, hang on... Unless he meant that different readers will take different things from the same book and feel different emotions from the same story. Yes, actually ... perhaps that's what he meant!
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| A thousand people living a thousand lives, pictured above. Unless they're all readers, in which case they would be a thousand people living a million lives. |
4) "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one." ...George R. R. Martin
You could argue that a non-reader who watches movies lives many lives as well, but anyway this quote really captures the way that a good book with a memorable hero can take over your mind and become the focus of your thoughts for a few days.
Finally, to round things off here's a quote about writing rather than reading...
5) "The beautiful part about writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon." ...Robert Cormier
Very true, and this is one of the reasons I like writing so much. It's very reassuring to know that you can have six drafts if you want, or even ten or twenty drafts if that's how many it takes to get the story exactly as you want it. Much less stressful than being a brain surgeon!
If you're after some inspiration and ideas on what books to read, then check out the blog posts below:
Book reviews (part 12)
Book reviews (part 13)
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