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by R. M. Leonard (Editor)
This volume of over five hundred epigrams, poems, and longer musings in prose and verse from over two hundred writers from across the ages will delight and educate any book lover, transporting them into the company of the wisest and wittiest. How to choose a book: "The three practical rules, then, which I have to offer, are, --1. Never read any book that is not a year old. 2. Never read any but famed books. 3. Never read any but what you like; or, in Shakespeare's phrase, No profit goes where is no pleasure ta'en: In brief, sir, study what you most affect. R. W. Emerson On the sometimes dubious value of reading: "If I had read as much as other men, I should have been as ignorant as they." Thomas Hobbes Furthermore, do beware: "Much reading is like much eating, wholly useless without digestion."--Robert South On novels: "The novel, in its best form, I regard as one of the most powerful engines of civilization ever invented".--Sir J. Herschel. On buying versus reading books: "If people bought no more books than they intended to read, and no more swords than they intended to use, the two worst trades in Europe would be a bookseller's and a sword-cutler's; but luckily for both they are reckoned genteel ornaments".--Lord Chesterfield. Is there any such thing as a bad book? What makes a good author? Do bibliomaniacs actually read? Are book bindings important? This unique collection contains thoughts on these and many other questions the bibliophile may ask. Of course there is also a good dose on the pleasant company of books, and the virtue to be found therein, but there is space for plenty of light-hearted wit, and amongst it all, a good measure of true wisdom. The writers selected include novelists, memoirists, playwrights, scholars, thinkers and statesmen: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Samuel Johnson, Jonathan Swift, Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare, Emerson, Amos Alcott, and John Donne, John Ruskin, Dante, and Cervantes. This edition is indexed by author and by title/key phrase so you can easily find the text you are looking for. An appendix of extensive notes, interesting in their own right, is provided. (Paperback: 978-1-78139-448-9. Hardback: 978-1-78139-449-6.)
