One for the Books Quotes

“If you have read 6,000 books in your lifetime, or even 600, it's probably because at some level you find 'reality' a bit of a disappointment.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“Electronic books are ideal for people who value the information contained in them, or who have vision problems, or who like to read on the subway, or who do not want other people to see how they are amusing themselves, or who have storage and clutter issues, but they are useless for people who are engaged in an intense, lifelong love affair with books. Books that we can touch; books that we can smell; books that we can depend on.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“People who prefer e-books...think that books merely take up space. This is true, but so do your children and Prague and the Sistine Chapel.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“Because to the poor, books are not diversions. Book are siege weapons.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“He used books the same way he used alcohol: to pretend that he was not here, and if he was here, that he was happy for a change.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“Great writers say things that are so beautiful, the very act of repeating them makes life itself more beautiful.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“I dread that awkward moment when a friend hands you the book that changed his or her life, and it is a book that you have despised since you were fourteen.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“I do not accept reading tips from strangers, especially from indecisive men whose shirt collars are a dramatically different color from the main portion of the garment.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“Good books don't make you think, because the author has already done all of the thinking for you, but a terrible book can really give your brain a workout, because you spend so much time wondering what incredibly dumb thing the author will say next.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“Books are a way of saying: This room seems to have more than its fair share of bozos in it.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“Here I am referring to the types of books that thirtyish women devour at private swim clubs, often to the dismay of their drowning children.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“I like to stack them up on the shelf and move them about and rearrange them according to new parameters-height, color, thickness, provenance, publisher, author's nationality, subject matter, likelihood that I will ever read them. Then I put them back the way they were.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“A reading life... is an adventure without maps where you meet unexpected soulmates along the way.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“Unless paid, I never read books by or about businessmen or politicians, nor should anyone else.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“Lending books to other people is merely a shrewd form of housecleaning.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“Library events scare me, as they provide refuge for local historians, fabulists, tellers of tall tales, historical reenactors, and even dream weavers. Not to mention the single most feared creature on the planet: the self-published poet”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“From the moment I own a book, even before I open it to the first page, I feel that it has in some way changed my life. I treat my books the same way I treat my clothes or my shoes or my records: I use them.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books

“But such a fortuitous rescue from ethical bondage is rare indeed.”
― Joe Queenan, One for the Books