World Book Day
It’s World Book Day today here in the UK. A whole day of celebrating books, reading, writers and all things bookish! Here’s the skinny:
World Book Day was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. The origins of the day we now celebrate in the UK and Ireland come from Catalonia, where roses and books were given as gifts to loved ones on St. George’s Day – a tradition started over 90 years ago.
To celebrate Quotables-style, we’ve compiled some of our favourite quotes about books and reading to get you inspired to pick up a book this World Book Day. Enjoy!
1. People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.
— Logan Pearsall Smith
2. Whenever you read a good book, it’s like the author is right there, in the room, talking to you, which is why I don’t like to read good books.
— Jack Handey
3. It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.
— Oscar Wilde
4. So, please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookcase on the wall.
— Roald Dahl
5. Whenever you read a good book, it’s like the author is right there, in the room, talking to you, which is why I don’t like to read good books.
— Jack Handey
6. Whatever we read from intense curiosity gives us a model of how we should always read.
— Ernest Dimnet
7. Good friends, good books & a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
— Mark Twain
8. Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.
— Charles W. Eliot
9. The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid.
— Jane Austen
11. You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.
— C. S. Lewis
12. Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.
— Bill Watterson
13. Reading one book is like eating one crisp.
— Diane Duane
14. A sure sign of a good book is that you like it more the older you get.
— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
15. Choose an author as you choose a friend.
— Wentworth Dillon
16. Always read stuff that’ll make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
— P. J. O’Rourke
17. Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body.
— Richard Steele
18. The good of a book lies in its being read.
— Umberto Eco
19. There is no mistaking a good book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.
— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
20. Books, I found, had the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future.
— Jim Bishop
What’s your favourite book? Leave us a comment with your favourite quote from it or send us a tweet about what you’re reading to @QuotablesHQ!
Featured image by celia gómez de villavedón.
Slider image by margolove.
