'Not Squandering Income But Sinking Capital': Buying Books

[I have one of my books to put together today -- yes, I mean a book that I wrote, a verse by verse devotional on the story of Jesus' birth from the Gospel of Luke -- so instead I'm going to share some quotes from a book I'm reading now. I came across the chapter title I'm using for today (by the way, it comes from the book A Book Addict's Treasury collected by Julie Rugg & Lynda Murphy, ISBN 9780711226852) and when I start laughing at what I read, it's something I must share! -- David]

His only care was study, and indeed
He never spoke a word more than was need,
Formal at that, respectful in the extreme,
Short, to the point, and lofty in his theme.
The thought of moral virtue filled his speech
And he would gladly learn, and gladly teach.

(Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, c. 1380s)

[I know I passed up the quote about books with that first one, but something about that passage resonates with me. Onward!]

And if she can have access to a good library of old and classical books, there need be no choosing at all. Keep the modern magazine and novel out of your girl's way; turn her loose into the old library every wet day, and let her alone. She will find what is good for her.

(John Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies, 1864)

[More often than not, my kids do this. I encourage it.]

When Providence throws a good book in my way, I bow to its decree and purchase it as an act of piety, if it is reasonably or unreasonably cheap.

(Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Poet at the Breakfast Table, 1872)

[I justify my latest literary purchases this way ...]

In book-buying you not infrequently condone an extravagance by the reflection that this particular purchase will be a good investment, sordidly considered: that you are not squandering income but sinking capital. But you know all the time that you are lying.

(Kenneth Grahame, 'Non libri sed liberi', 1894)

[Yes I know I'm lying, but I ask forgiveness. The porch is quite comfy.]

The moment when one meets a book and knows, beyond shadow of doubt, that that book must be his -- not necessarily now, but some time -- is among the happiest of the spirit.

(Christopher Morley, 'On visiting bookshops', 1925)

[round of applause]

... there are some publishers whom I refuse to collect, because all their novels look alike, and destroy my conception of a book-shelf, which should be a mass of gaudy variety.

(Cyril Connolly, 'The novel-addict's cupboard', 1945)

[Oh, my bookshelf is, I assure you.]

Book-collecting, I would have you know, is a full-time occupation, and one wouldn't get far if one took time off for frivolities like reading.

(A. N. L. Munby, 'Floreat bibliomania', 1952)

[There are moments I do believe this.]

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

(W. H. Auden, 'Reading', 1963)

[Agreed. I have and I have read a few like that.]

You catch the book that you choose to make fall.

(Nicholson Baker, 'Books as furniture', 1995)

[!!!!!]

'I can always tell when you're reading somewhere in the house,' my mother used to say. 'There's a special silence, a reading silence.'

(Francis Spufford, The Child that Books Built, 2002)

[What can you break by saying it?]