(Source: icantspel, via pagingmissjones)

littlebrownandcompany:

A little lunchtime viewing: Ann Patchett talks about the success of the neighborhood bookstore she opened in Nashville, Parnassus Books, on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday.

“I can’t imagine a world without reading, without books, and I can’t imagine a world without bookstores.”

(Source: oprah.com)

"To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life."

Somerset Maugham

aaknopf:

“My local library branch started doing this “Blind Date with a Book” thing, thought you guys might like it. The shelf was full when we got there, but was like this as we were leaving. The books are wrapped in paper and have different designs on them, and then a few words vaguely describing the subject matter of the book. Things like “Drama”, “Plot Twists”, “espionage”, etc. The only thing exposed on the book is the barcode that you use to scan the book out. I thought it was a pretty cool idea.”

Sometimes marketing is not a bad thing at all. 

‘The Art of Writing’ with the lovely Audrey Hepburn - from the screenplay, “Paris When It Sizzles”

My 6,128 Favorite Books →

A hilarious and insightful look into the life of a book lover by Joe Queenan. 

“I’ve never squandered an opportunity to read. There are only 24 hours in the day, seven of which are spent sleeping, and in my view at least four of the remaining 17 must be devoted to reading. A friend once told me that the real message Bram Stoker sought to convey in “Dracula” is that a human being needs to live hundreds and hundreds of years to get all his reading done; that Count Dracula, basically nothing more than a misunderstood bookworm, was draining blood from the necks of 10,000 hapless virgins not because he was the apotheosis of pure evil but because it was the only way he could live long enough to polish off his extensive reading list. But I have no way of knowing if this is true, as I have not yet found time to read “Dracula.”“

(Source: randomhouse)

The Bookstore Strikes Back →

Beautiful, brilliant, and inspiring piece on Ann Patchett and her independent bookstore, Parnassus, located in Nashville. 

“If what a bookstore offers matters to you, then shop at a bookstore. If you feel that the experience of reading a book is valuable, then read a book. This is how we change the world: We grab hold of it. We change ourselves.”

theparisreview:

“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.”

—Happy Birthday, C. S. Lewis