Quotes on Reading

"A life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books." John Ruskin

"Just the knowledge that a good book is waiting for one at the end of a long day makes that day happier." Kathleen Norris

"Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head." Paul Auster

It is so.

"I have no doubt that you will wish to know what the Princess lived on during the long years when the dragon did the cooking. My dear, she lived on her income: and that is a thing which a great many people would like to be able to do."

E. Nesbit
The Complete Book of Dragons

Cleaning

Suddenly, because that possible dog was on his mind, and because there was nothing else to do, Edward decided to make a tremendous gesture. He would clean his entire room. He would stack the books that lay around so carelessly. He would straighten his toys and his clothes. He'd get out the vacuum and do the rug. Maybe he'd even clean the closet. Yes, that was a great idea. He'd never cleaned the closet in his life. His mother would be so bowled over she'd probably offer him a St. Bernard on the spot.

He plunged in at once, dragging out clothes, books, fishing equipment, old forgotten trucks and games. He put the clothes on the still-unmade bed, shoved everything else out on the floor. It seemed to take an awfully long time to get the closet emptied, and then when he thought he was done he looked up, saw the shelves, and wished he'd never started.

They were absolutely jammed with junk. Well, maybe it wasn't all junk, but it looked it. And now his room was filled to brimming with things that would have to be put away again. He sat on his heels and stared around, thinking that the whole idea of cleaning up was pretty silly. Everything was just going to have to be put back in the closet, so what was the point of taking it out in the first place?

"My word, Edward," said his mother at the door, "what are you doing?"

"Cleaning my room," he said glumly.

"That's a good idea," she said, coming in. "Did all that come out of the closet?"

Edward nodded. "And it all has to go back," he said. "And I was just thinking, what's the point? I mean, where do you get ahead? I don't think I'll clean it after all."

M. Stolz
A Dog on Barkham Street

Reading

"In my experience when people once begin to read they go on. They begin because they think they ought to and they go on because they must. Yes. They find it widens life. We're all greedy for life, you know, and our short span of existence can't give us all that we hunger for, the time is too short and our capacity not large enough. But in books we experience all life vicariously."

A City of Bells
Elizabeth Goudge

The tact to disappear

"Cooking something delicious is really much more satisfactory than painting pictures or making pottery. At least for most of us. Food has the tact to disappear, leaving room and opportunity for masterpieces to come. The mistakes don't hang on the wall or on shelves to reproach you forever. It follows from this that the kitchen should be the thought of as the center of the house. It needs above all space for talking, playing, bringing up children, sewing, having a meal, reading, sitting, and thinking. ... It's in this kind of place that good food has flourished."

Jane Grigson
Good Things

And I am thankful

"We have, indeed, lost a great many skills during the progress of civilizing our country. ... I do not know a single woman who can card flax, spin thread, and weave it into cloth. Housekeeping today is pretty simple, when you stop to consider it. We do not get up in the morning and build a fire in the stove, using a flint. We do not heat all our water in big kettles. We turn the tap and out it gushes. Except for some true farm people, we buy our milk instead of milking cows once a day."

-Gladys Taber
Stillmeadow Calendar