Bookshelves Quotes

“I love walking into a bookstore. It's like all my friends are sitting on shelves, waving their pages at me.”
― Tahereh Mafi

“A bookshelf is as particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just as a shoe is shaped by the foot."

[Baffled at a Bookcase (London Review of Books, Vol. 33 No. 15, 28 July 2011)]”
― Alan Bennett

“Ultimately, the number of books always exceeds the space they are granted.”
― Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night

“A man's bookcase will tell you everything you'll ever need to know about him.”
― Walter Mosley, The Long Fall

“My brother and I were able to fantasize far more extravagantly about our parents' tastes and desires, their aspirations and their vices, by scanning their bookcases than by snooping in their closest. Their selves were on their shelves.”
― Anne Fadiman, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

“Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Filmmaker John Waters has said, “Nothing is more important than an unread library.”
― Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

“In my living room there are two large bookcases, each one eight feet tall, and they have about five hundred books between them. If I step up to a shelf and look at the books one by one, I can remember something about each. As a historian once said, some stare at me reproachfully, grumbling that I have never read them. One may remind me vaguely of a time when I was interested in romantic novels. An old college text will elicit a pang of unhappiness about studying. Each book has its character, and even books I know very well also have this kind of wordless flavor. Now if I step back from the shelf and look quickly across both bookcases I speed up that same process a hundredfold. Impressions wash across my awareness. But each book still looks back in its own way, answering the rude brevity of my gaze, calling faintly to me out of the corner of my eye. At that speed many books remain wrapped in the shadows of my awareness--I know I have looked past them and I know they are there, but I refuse to call them to mind.”
― James Elkins, The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing

“Jamie felt a strong desire to go across and see what the open books were, to go to the shelves and run his knuckles gently over the leather and wood and buckrum of the bindings until a book should speak to him and come willingly into his hand.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“The worst part about her new chambers was that all these wardrobes and vanities and drapes meant there was no space--none at all--for a bookcase. Who on earth could feel comfortable enough to sleep in a room with no books?”
― Cynthia Hand, My Lady Jane

“Browsing through the shelves in bookstores or libraries, I was completely happy.”
― Louis L'Amour, Education of a Wandering Man: A Memoir

“We are much more likely to be drawn to a messy bookstore than a neat one because the mess signifies vitality. We are not drawn to a bookstore because of tasteful, Finnish shelves in gunmetal gray mesh, each one displaying three carefully chosen, color-coordinated covers. Clutter -- orderly clutter, if possible -- is what we expect. Like a city. It's not quite a city unless there's more than enough.”
― Lewis Buzbee, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History

“The room was as big as the Duke of Pardloe's library and had at least as many books, and yet the feeling of it was more akin to a small cluttered hole (Pardloe's)
You could tell from the books whether a library was meant for show or not, Books that were usedhad an open, interested feel to them, even when closed and neatly lined up on a shelf in strict order. You felt as though the book took on as much interest in you as you did in it and it was willing you to reach for it.”
― Diana Gabaldon

“There are a lot of books but still waiting for the weekend because there is no time to arrange.”
― theamitkumarswords

“Hugo turned to gaze upon the seemingly endless rows of books. Like humans, they came in all shapes and sizes: some were tall and slender, others squat and well upholstered, many were wrinkled with age.”
― Kevin Ansbro, In the Shadow of Time

“A good book is like a first kiss, you can taste the expectation”
― Sissy Barr

“Reasons to keep books:

To read them one day! If you hope to read the book one day, definitely keep it. It’s fine to be aspirational; no one else will keep score on what you have actually read. It’s great to dream and hope that one day you do have the time to read all your books.

To tell your story. Some people give away every book they’ve read explaining, “What’s the point in keeping a book after I’ve read it if I’m not going to read it again? It’s someone else’s turn to read my copy now.” If that works for you, then only keep books on your shelves that you haven’t read yet. However you can probably understand that the books that you haven’t yet read only tell the story of your future, they don’t say much about where you’ve been and what made you who you are today.

To make people think you’ve read the book! This one may be hard or easy for you to admit, but we don’t think there is any shame in it. Sometimes we hold on to books because they represent our aspirational selves, supporting the perception of how well read or intelligent we are. They are certainly the books our ideal selves would read, but in reality—if we had to admit it—we probably never will. We would argue that you should still have these books around. They are part of your story and who you want to be.

To inspire someone else in your household to read those books one day. Perhaps it’s your kids or maybe your guests. Keeping books for the benefit of others is thoughtful and generous. At the very least, anyone who comes into your home will know that these are important books and will be exposed to the subjects and authors that you feel are important. Whether they actually read Charles Dickens or just know that he existed and was a prolific writer after seeing your books: mission accomplished!

To retain sentimental value. People keep a lot of things that have sentimental value: photographs, concert ticket stubs, travel knickknacks. Books, we would argue, have deeper meaning as sentimental objects. That childhood book of your grandmother's— she may have spent hours and hours with it and perhaps it was instrumental in her education. That is much more impactful than a photograph or a ceramic figurine. You are holding in your hands what she held in her hands. This brings her into the present and into your home, taking up space on your shelves and acknowledging the thread of family and history that unites you. Books can do that in ways that other objects cannot.

To prove to someone that you still have it! This may be a book that you are otherwise ready to give away, but because a friend gifted it, you want to make sure you have it on display when they visit. This I’ve found happens a lot with coffee table books. It can be a little frustrating when the biggest books are the ones you want to get rid of the most, yet, you are beholden to keeping them. This dilemma is probably better suited to “Dear Abby” than to our guidance here. You will know if it’s time to part ways with a book if you notice it frequently and agonize over the need to keep it to stay friends with your friend. You should probably donate it to a good organization and then tell your friend you spilled coffee all over it and had to give it away!

To make your shelves look good! There is no shame in keeping books just because they look good. It’s great if your books all belong on your shelves for multiple reasons, but if it’s only one reason and that it is that it looks good, that is good enough for us. When you need room for new acquisitions, maybe cull some books that only look good and aren’t serving other purposes.”
― Thatcher Wine, For the Love of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library

“Books are the windows to our soul!”
― Avijeet Das, Why the Silhouette?

“When I reached my own study, I sat down by a blazing fire...I soon fell into a dreamy state (which a few mistake for thinking, because it is the nearest approach they ever make to it) and in this reverie I kept staring about my bookshelves. I am vey fond of books. Do not mistake me. I do not mean that I love reading. I hope I do. That is no fault--a virtue rather than a fault. But, as the old meaning of the word "fond" was foolish, I use that word: I am foolishly fond of the bodies of books as distinguished from their souls. I do not say that I love their books as distinguished from their souls--I should not keep a book for which I felt no respect or had no use. But I delight in seeing books about me, books even of which there seems to be no prospect that I shall have to read a single chapter. I confess that if they are nicely bound, so as to glow and shine in a firelight, I like them ever so much the better. I suspect that by the time books (which ought to be loved for the truth that is in them) come to be loved as articles of furniture, the mind has gone through a process which the miser's mind goes through--that of passing from the respect of money because of what it can do, to the love of money because it is money. I have not yet reached the furniture stage, and I do not think I every shall. I would rather burn them all. Meantime, I think one safeguard is to encourage one's friends to borrow one's books.... That will probably take some of the shine off them, and put a few thumb-marks in them, which are very wholesome.
- from "Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood, Ch. 11”
― George MacDonald, Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood

“Knowing that most people don’t have easy access to knowledge, I don’t take libraries for granted. I worship them.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya, Our Nepal, Our Pride

“Bookshelves! That was the most perfect thing anyone had ever offered her. Better than jewels or feast or a palace.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, The Spellshop

“[Habla el autor] (...) Al principio mantenía mis libros en rígido orden alfabético, por autores. Luego empecé a dividirlos por géneros: novelas, ensayos, obras teatrales, poemas. Más adelante traté de agruparlos por idiomas, y cuando, durante mis viajes, me veía obligado a conservar sólo unos pocos, separaba los que apenas leía de aquellos que leía todo el tiempo y, finalmente, de los que quería leer. (...)”
― Alberto Manguel

“In the fast paced, digitally saturated, screen-overloaded era we live in, we believe that printed books are a refuge of space and time. It’s OK to slow down and read; it’s OK to fill your home and your shelves with printed books and to celebrate the comfort and meaning they provide in our lives. We think it’s something that we all crave whether we know it or not.”
― Thatcher Wine, For the Love of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library

“With respect to space and time, books are like a wall of resistance against a world that demands everything we have to give.

Reading a book allows you to travel through space and time to other places, to see the world from other perspectives and walk in another’s shoes for a bit. Stories create possibilities for our limited vantages to be cracked open, affording new views and different experiences.

Reading forces us to slow down. In the fast paced world we live, time is accelerating and we feel we have less of it. Our focus shifts second by second. We flip through our friends’ updates on Facebook or Instagram, quickly to get the story. We get impatient when a song or a movie takes too long to download. We read on our devices, take a pause and check our email, check our texts. Our concentration is spent in bursts and the sense of chaos builds.

And we are in a time of chaos. Each one of us can feel it. The pressure and the speed often feel relentless.”
― Thatcher Wine, For the Love of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library

“Books are unlike other household objects in that one can have a “collection of books” without being a “book collector.” There are very few objects that have so much versatility, that can be acquired at so little relative cost, and that function as decoration when not being used for entertainment or intellectual engagement.”
― Thatcher Wine, For the Love of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library

“There really is a book about every subject. Sometimes it takes just one book to begin a collection or to anchor a group of seemingly disparate books, providing a launching point to build a larger collection.

Two books can constitute a “collection.”

Once you have three, you’re on a roll! The larger it is, the more it says that it’s important to you and the more you can deepen your knowledge and immersion in that subject or hobby. Books are not just for readers or booklovers. Books are for everyone.”
― Thatcher Wine, For the Love of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library

“The next morning, I opened a red-painted door and saw a little room with bookshelves lining its whitewashed walls. In the center of the room sat a round lion-footed table, on which a fat old codex lay open; on the far wall, between a gap in the bookcases, a life-sized bas-relief of the Muse Clio stared at me, her scrolls clasped to her chest, her blind white eyes all-knowing.
It was a library. At first I thought it was very small, but when I stepped inside I saw a doorway leading to another room of books, which itself opened on two more. It was a honeycomb of rooms, their walls covered in bookshelves, reliefs of the Muses peering from occasional alcoves.”
― Rosamund Hodge, Cruel Beauty

“Let’s have a look at the books. The first thing noticed, at least on looking at those you have most prominent, is that the function of books for you is immediate reading; they are not instruments of study or reference or components of a library arranged according to some order. Perhaps on occasion you have tried to give a semblance of order to your shelves, but every attempt at classification was rapidly foiled by heterogeneous acquisitions. The chief reason for the juxtaposition of volumes, besides the dimensions of the tallest or the shortest, remains chronological, as they arrived here, one after the other, anyway you can always put your hand on any one.
…and perhaps you don’t find yourself hunting for a book you have already read.”
― Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

“How do you decide which [books] to keep and which to give away?
...Four categories for your books, regardless of which room you keep them in:
- Books you own but have never read and don't realistically expect to read. Don't hold on to them for "someday". Donate them today.
- Books you have read but will never go back to. Donate these too.
- Books that you have read and that have become influential in your life. Keep them...
- Books you have already read and know you will want to return to. Of course, keep these.
Shelves looking better now?”
― Joshua Becker, The Minimalist Home: A Room-by-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life

“Dozens of shiny brass wall sconces created the sort of dim and atmospheric lighting I'd only ever seen in old movies and haunted houses. And the room wasn't just darkly lit. It was also just... dark. The walls were painted a dark chocolate brown that I vaguely remembered from art history classes had been fashionable in the Victorian era. A pair of tall, dark wooden bookshelves that must have weighed a thousand pounds each stood like silent sentinels on either end of the room. Atop each of them sat an ornate brass, malachite candelabra that would have seemed right at home in a sixteenth-century European cathedral. They clashed in style and in every other imaginable way with the two very modern-looking black leather sofas facing each other in the center of the room and the austere, glass-topped coffee table in the living room's center. The latter had a stack of what looked like Regency romance novels piled high at one end, further adding to the incongruity of the scene.
Besides the pale green of the candelabras, the only other color to be found in the living room was in the large, garish, floral Oriental rug covering most of the floor; the bright red, glowing eyes of a deeply creepy stuffed wolf's head hanging over the mantel; and the deep-red velvet drapes hanging on either side of the floor-to-ceiling windows.”
― Jenna Levine, My Roommate Is a Vampire

“Most walls of the family's apartment were lined with bookshelves, and more volumes were stacked in boxes under every bed and table. Her mother often threatened to throw them out with the rubbish, and any new titles had to be added to the collection secretly when she was at work.”
― Daisy Wood, The Royal Librarian