Bookish Quotations

Updated January 22, 2021

“Great is bookishness and the charm of books.” — Augustine Birrell (From “Bookworms,” In the Name of the Bodleian, and Other Essays)

Note: I stole the heading “Bookish Quotations” from Stefanie Hollmichael’s blog
So Many Books

 

Books  //  Book Collecting  //  Bookstores  //  Censorship

The Classics   //  Libraries  //  Readers & Writers   //  Reading

 

Selected Sources for Bookish Quotations

The Anatomy of Bibliomania, rev. ed. by Holbrook Jackson.  Scribner’s Sons, 1932.

Ballads of Books edited by Andrew Lang. Longmans, Green & Co., 1888.

Bibliomania by Thomas Frognall Dibdin. McCreery, 1811.

A Book Addict’s Treasury by Julie Rugg and Lynda Murphy. London: Frances Lincoln,  2006.

The Book Book by Steven Gilbar. Bell Publishing, 1985.

The Book Fancier by Percy Fitzgerald Sampson. Low, Marston & Co., no date.

The Book of Literary Lists by Nicholas Parsons. Facts on File, 1987.

“Bookish Quotes,” a section of Stefanie Hollmichael’s blog So Many Books.

The Book-Lover by James Baldwin. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1986.

Books by Gerald Donaldson. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1981.

Books: An Anthology compiled by James Thompson. London: Anne Bingley, 1968.

Books are Basic: The Essential Lawrence Clark Powell edited by John David Marshall. University of Arizona Press, 1985.

Books in My Baggage by Lawrence Clark Powell. World Publishing, 1960.

The Books You Read edited by Charles E. “T” Jones. Executive Books, 1985.

Bouillabaisse for Bibliophiles edited by William Targ. Scarecrow, 1955.

The Delightful Diversion by Reginald Brewer. Macmillan, 1935.

The Delights of Reading: Quotes, Notes & Anecdotes selected by Otto L. Bettmann. Godine/Library of Congress Center for the Book, 1987.

Desktop Retreat: A Reading Journal  http://desktopretreat.blogspot.com/

A Dictionary of Literary Quotations compiled by Meic Stephens. Routledge, 1990.

The Excursions of a Book-Lover by Frederic Rowland Marvin. Sherman, French & Co., 1910.

Harper Book of Quotations, 3rd ed. edited by Robert I. Fitzhenry. HarperPerennial, 1993.

Humanist Discussion Group. Vol. 6, No. 0685 (Apr 20, 1993): http://lists.village.virginia.edu/lists_archive/Humanist/v06/0684.html

International Federation of Library Association: IFLANet’s “Quotations about Libraries and Librarians: Subject List” http://archive.ifla.org/I/humour/subj.htm

Library Quotes (http://libraryquotes.org/), a website of the American Library Association.

The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac by Eugene Field. Scribner’s Sons, 1896.

The Love of Books: The Philobiblon by Richard de Bury. Translated by E.C. Thomas. Chatto & Windus, 1925; originally published 1473.

1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said selected and compiled by Robert Byrne. Fawcett Columbine, 1988.

The Oxford Book of Aphorisms chosen by John Gross. Oxford University Press, 1983.

A Passion for Books edited by Rob Kaplan and Harold Rabinowitz. Times Books, 1999.

A Passion for Books by Lawrence Clark Powell. World Publishing, 1958.

The Quotable Book Lover edited by Ben Jacobs and Helena Hjalmarsson. The Lyons Press, 1999.

Quotations about Books posted by GoodReads’ Members

“Quotations about Books and Reading,” http://www.quotegarden.com/books.html (accessed 12/17/09).

The Reader’s Quotation Book: A Literary Companion edited by Steven Gilbar. Pushcart, 1990.

“Reading Remarks” section of BiblioBuffet

The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page: Reading

Speaking of Books: The Best Things Ever Said about Books and Book Collecting edited by Rob Kaplan and Harold Rabinowitz. Crown Publishers, 2011.

Tales for Bibliophiles edited by William Targ. Philip C. Duschnes, 1947.

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