A book reads the better which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots, and dog's ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins.

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

You may have tangible wealth untold; 
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. 
Richer than I you could never be- 
I had a mother that read to me

Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for living.

Never read a book that is not a year old.

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

"We are how we read." Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts "efficiency" and "immediacy" above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace. When we read online, she says, we tend to become "mere decoders of information." Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.