Only in Books

 Only in Books (1996) by J. Kevin Graffagnino

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 bookish quote: In every University of character, the library is regarded as of fundamental importance. ~Charles Kendall Adams (1835-1902)

Last bookish quote: The minute arrived when with bated breath, I read that the publisher had decided to publish my book and even stipulated an option for later ones. The package with the first set of proofs came and was untied in great excitement, so as to see the type, the type-page, the very embryo of the book, and then, after a few weeks, the book itself, the first copies. One never tired of looking at them, touching them, comparing them, again and again and again. And then the childish visites to the bookstores to see if copies were already on display, whether they were resplendent in the center of the shop or hidden bashfully at the side. And then to await the first letter, the first notices, the first reply from the unknown, the incalculable. I secretly envy the young man all his suspense, excitement and enthusiasm, who casts his first book into the world. ~Stefan Zweig (1881-1942)