The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel is loaded with great and wonderfully written lines. Here are a few of my favorites
This is what Manguel has to say about the World Wide Web:
Its virtue (or virtuality) entails a constant present - which for medieval scholars was one of the definitions of hell.
All I can say is "!!!!"
This one amused me greatly:
Books lend a room a particular identity that can, in some cases, usurp that of their owner - a peculiarity well known to oafish personalities who demand to be portrayed against the background of a book-lined wall, in the hope that it will grant them scholarly lustre.
Here's one that I hope applies to me more than does the one above:
What makes a library a reflection of its owner is not merely the choice of the titles themselves, but the mesh of associations implied in the choice.
And here are two that seem to have been written just for me to ponder:
In a library, no empty shelf remains empty for long. Like nature, libraries abhor a vacuum, and the problem of space is inherent in the very nature of any collection of books.
I have no feeling of guilt regarding the books I have not read and perhaps will never read; I know that my books have unlimited patience. They will wait for me until the end of my days.
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