reading

There is nothing more wonderful than a book. It may be a message to us from the dead, from human souls we never saw who lived perhaps thousands of miles away, and yet these little sheets of paper speak to us, arouse us, teach us, open our hearts and in turn open their hearts to us like brothers. Without books, God is silent, justice dormant, philosophy lame.

I like ethics." The question of morality, how and why do people behave in certain ways. "And the principle of knowledge." I continue, "I've read this one." I show him On Certainty (book) by Ludwig Wittgenstein wrapped in my hand."An intelligent one, that is, though, modern mind rarely appreciates such kind of writing. Not any more. I studied philosophy myself, and you know what I think? Every branch of knowledge needs philosophy for it helps to organise the flow of ideas and articulate meanings.I could not agree more to that. "Do you think it will be deserted one day?""Probably. Nobody will bother about it any more, just like history. What is the only thing people become more interested in nowadays?" he asks. "Making money." His thumb rubs repeatedly over the tip of the index finger. "Philosophy and history are considered as eccentric. They don't usually offer people high income, and that's the inexorable reality. We've got to deal with it anyhow.

We encounter great souls, who lived in historical times, in ancient books.

Ancient literature is a rich history.

We travel to ancient times by reading history books.

We may rifle the treasures of antiquity and make the heathen contribute to the gospel even as Hiram of Tyre served under Solomon's direction for the building of the Temple.

To use the past, he had to save it from aspects of itself.

We can do away with ignorance, if we take it upon ourselves to encourage each other to use our intelligence.

Even in their reading, More charged, too many women were prone to superficiality. In search of a passing knowledge of books and authors, many read anthologies of excerpted works, that selected the brightest passages but left out deeper contexts__ighteenth-century Reader__ Digest were quite popular. More cautioned against a habit she viewed as cultivating a taste only for __elicious morsels,_ one that spits out __very thing which is plain._ Good books, in contrast, require good readers: __n all well-written books, there is much that is good which is not dazzling; and these shallow critics should be taught, that it is for the embellishment of the more tame and uninteresting parts of his work, that the judicious poet commonly reserves those flowers, whose beauty is defaced when they are plucked from the garland into which he had so skillfully woven them.

The nobles had made reading unpopular, as it showed that one couldn__ afford to buy spells or magical devices, since one had to get knowledge to do things the ordinary way; even if this view held little logic, the king himself was known to insult readers as __ookfaces_ or __nable to think for themselves, so they need to spout what others have said,_ and these opinions became popular, as did most views expressed by the king or his son.

When the writing is good, a book becomes a mirror. The reader will see an uncanny familiarity and respond accordingly.

If you are brave, you will open the book and read it.

Begin to read.

Cats and books are my universe. Both are infinitely fascinating and full of mystery.

Encourage your children to read more and watch television less.

There's something horribly unfair about dying in the middle of a good story, before you have a chance to see how it all comes out. Of course, I suppose everyone ALWAYS dies in the middle of a good story, in a sense. Your own story. Or the story of your grandchildren. Death is a raw deal for narrative junkies.

There were two immediate results of my forced loneliness: I began to find company in books, and greater pleasure in music.

Writers: read books. Read good books. Read bad books. Learn what does and does not work.