"The shelves were supposed to be loaded with books-but they were, of course, really doors: each book-lid opened as exciting as Alice putting her gold key in the lock. I spent days running in and out of other worlds like a time bandit, or a spy. I was as excited as I've ever been in my life, in that library: scoring new books the minute they came in; ordering books I'd heard of-then waiting, fevered, for them to arrive, like they were the word Christmas."

Reading, Books, Imagination, Discovery, Joy

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"The shelves were supposed to be loaded with books-but they were, of course, really doors: each book-lid opened as exciting as Alice putting her gold key in the lock. I spent days running in and out of other worlds like a time bandit, or a spy. I was as excited as I've ever been in my life, in that library: scoring new books the minute they came in; ordering books I'd heard of-then waiting, fevered, for them to arrive, like they were the word Christmas."

Exlpore more Reading quotes

"Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others."

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, French Writer

Reading, Read

"Someday I must read this scholar Everyone. He seems to have written so much--all of it wrong."

Tamora Pierce, American Author

Reading, Observation, Truth, Wisdom, Learning

"She'd obviously read the book many times before, and so she read flawlessly and confidently, and I could hear her smile in the reading of it, and the sound of that smile made me think that maybe I would like novels better if Alaska Young read them to me."

John Green, American Author

Reading, Joy, Novel, Emotion

"Some readers read a book as if it were an instruction manual, expecting to understand everything first time, but of course when you write, you put into every sentence an overflow of meaning, and you create in every sentence as many resonances and double meanings and ambiguities as you can possibly pack in there, so that people can read it again and get something new each time."

Hilary Mantel, British Novelist

Reading, Writing, Meaning, Interpretation

"When you read a book put all of your effort into staying present and focus your energy towards the comprehension of each and every word and how you can apply it into your daily life."

Matthew Donnelly, American Author

Reading, Focus, Presence, Learning

"A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual."

Gloria Steinem, American Activist

Reading, Woman

"Read in order to live."

Gustave Flaubert, French Novelist

Reading, Order

"A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading."

C. S. Lewis, British Author

Reading, Man, Sound, Wishes

"No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting."

Mary Wortley Montagu, English Writer

Reading, Entertainment, Pleasure

"The book smelled dusty and old but also carried a sweet tang, a hint of something inviting. She opened to the first page and started to read, pronouncing the words in a reverent whisper."

Shannon Hale, American Author

Reading, Books, Wonder, Knowledge

Explore more quotes by Caitlin Moran

"The actual handbag is neither here nor there-- it's what you keep in it that's the most important thing."

Values

"For a woman, every outfit is a hopeful spell, cast to influence the outcome of the day. An act of trying to predict your fate, like looking at your horoscope."

Expression

"Strip clubs let everyone down. Men and women approach their very worst here."

Morality

"After all, you can argue " argue until you cry " about whatmodern, codified misogyny is; but straight-up ungentlemanliness,of the kind his mother would clatter the back of his head for, isinarguable. It doesn't need to be a 'man vs woman' thing. It's just atiff between The Guys.Seeing the whole world as 'The Guys' is important. The ideathat we're all, at the end of the day, just a bunch of well-meaningschlumps, trying to get along, is the basic alpha and omega of myworld view. I'm neither 'pro-women' nor 'antimen'. I'm just 'Thumbsup for the six billion'."

Humanity

"You stop talking about things when you've worked them out. You're no longer an observer but a participant. You're too busy for this bullshit."

Growth

"I want a Zero Tolerance policy on All The Patriarchal Bullshit."

Feminism

"Because this injunction for all women to have children isn't in any way logical. If you take a moment to consider the state of the world, the thing you notice is that there are plenty of babies being born; the planet really doesn't need all of us to produce more babies."

Choice

"When a woman walks into a room, her outfit is the first thing she says, before she even opens her mouth. Women are judged on what they wear in a way men would find incomprehensible."

Judgment

"In the end, I go where I always go when I need information on something baffling, poisonous, or terrifying: the library."

Knowledge

"I have a rule for working out if the root problem of something is, in fact, sexism. And it is this: asking 'Are the boys doing it? Are the boys having to worry about this stuff? Are the boys the centre of a gigantic global debate on this subject?"

Social-Justice