We're competing with everything: the beach, the mall, bookstores. Libraries are in a transition right now, caught between two forces, the old ways and technology. Libraries are under a lot of pressure to provide both.

quote by John Callahan
Added by Lucian Velea
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Books follow morals, and not morals books.

quote by Theophile Gautier
Added by Lucian Velea
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What a shame to die, when I have so many unread books!

quote by Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo, translated by Dan Costinaş
Added by Dan Costinaş
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Like Mother Like Daughter

When I was a child had dollies and teddies
I played tea party and bookstore,
And followed mum around the shopping centre with my dolly in her pram
I had my pretend credit cards and they were the coolest thing ever.

Now the dolly in her pram has turned in to a real child,
And my pretend credit cards are real
I don’t play tea party but make dinner every night
And a bookstore is a place where I buy text books and parenting books,
Not comics and novels

Soon again it will be time for tea parties and teddies,
And going shopping with dolly in tow
But now it is my little girl who has grand dreams of being just like her mum
Of having credit cards and a daughter of her own.
But for now as I watch her sleep I pray she does not repeat my mistakes

poem by Kayla Lines
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The Romance Of A Book

Reading a book, you're hit by romance,
No matter the subject matter,
You can read and read,
And every book is different,
Some stories are more pleasant than others,
While some are funny, but most are serious,
For the romance of a book,
Is in everyone's heart,
No matter their age or height,
Whether male or female:
It is all relative and I devour,
Each and every book,
I can read the classics,
Or even a heart-warming romance,
I just get through so many books,
I love every storyline,
Not so much the gory parts,
But the cleverness of the fictional detectives,
And those rock stars that roam the stage,
For a book is something that will never age,

[...] Read more

poem by Paula Glynn
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Picture Book

Picture yourself when youre getting old,
Sat by the fireside a-pondering on[? ].
Picture book, pictures of your mama, taken by your papa a long time ago.
Picture book, of people with each other, to prove they love each other a long ago.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Picture book.
Picture book.
A picture of you in your birthday suit,
You sat in the sun on a hot afternoon.
Picture book, your mama and your papa, and fat old uncle charlie out cruising with their friends.
Picture book, a holiday in august, outside a bed and breakfast in sunny southend.
Picture book, when you were just a baby, those days when you were happy, a long time ago.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Picture book.
Picture book.
Picture book.
Picture book.
Picture book,

[...] Read more

song performed by Kinks
Added by Lucian Velea
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I'm totally into new age and self-help books. I used to work in a bookstore and that's the section they gave me, and I got way into it. I just loved the power of positive thinking, letting yourself go.

quote by Jason Mraz
Added by Lucian Velea
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There are houses that have fewer books than square feet.

aphorism by Ramon Eder, translated by Dan Costinaş
Added by Dan Costinaş
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Even bad books are books and therefore sacred.

Gunter Grass in The Tin Drum (1959)
Added by Lucian Velea
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I Know I Have A Copy Somewhere

Wherever you may choose to look
You're guaranteed to find a book.
Perhaps a murder mystery.
Anthologies of poetry
Reference books and picture books.
Books on witchcraft and black magic
Tomes on almost any topic.
Some by authors long since dead.
Books which try to look ahead.
Books of every shape and size.
As I have come to realise.
Enough to start a library
Though jumbled up haphazardly.

poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
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On Books

Books are my first love, I’m so proud to read;
They give me knowledge and help life to lead;
Hours, days just pass by, by reading life-time;
Life would not be worth, if not for my rhyme.

Great are those people who write books all life;
Burning just candles, with Goose-quills in strife;
Tired of writing though day-long or night,
They keep on writing in such a bad light.

Books serve a great cause; their value can’t cease;
It takes years to write but reading is ease;
Book-makers struggle to print a few books;
And keep spending time to, improve their looks.

Some find their way to libraries in town;
Some remain untouched and nev’r taken down;
Silver-fish, Moths eat the books that are old;
Some are gone obsolete, some sold like gold.

[...] Read more

poem by John Celes
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I tend to turn down books originally published as e-books. As for selling books directly to e-book publishers, I would do so only if all traditional publishers had turned them down.

quote by Richard Curtis
Added by Lucian Velea
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Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.

quote by Francis Bacon
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Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.

quote by Francis Bacon
Added by Lucian Velea
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I read a book

I read a book
Not to enhance my looks

I read a book
Maybe to avoid being a crook

I read a book
Not just to learn how to cook

I read a book
To ascertain how to defend my rights
Not just to acquire knowledge
Reading a book I pledge,
Is one of the roads to the light

I read a book
To understand how a kings territory
Is defended with pieces such as the rook

I read a book

[...] Read more

poem by Sylvia Chidi
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I love books.

quote by Reese Witherspoon
Added by Lucian Velea
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I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, ""Where's the self-help section?"" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

quote by George Carlin
Added by Lucian Velea
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Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Added by Lucian Velea
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A movie is not a book. If the source material is a book, you cannot be too respectful of the book. All you owe to the book is the spirit.

quote by Graham Greene
Added by Lucian Velea
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The Best Book In The World

the best book
in the world
the only true book
is the world itself
the Book of Nature

the best book is the silence
the wordless-ness in
the clouds and the sky
and the rivers and the oceans
and the lands
and the grass that breaks through the concrete;
and in the deserts and the volcanoes
and the stars
and the moon
and the creatures of the earth
and in all fellow beings
and the vastness beyond
and the vastness within

[...] Read more

poem by Raj Arumugam
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