Libraries are one of my favorite places on earth. Any type of library. Home library. Work library. Old fashioned libraries (from which one can actually check out books!).
The smell of a library always lifts my spirits. New or old, but especially the old ones with their peculiar combination of old stone, dust and woodworm.
Libraries are, to me, captivating, delightful and fascinating. A home library speaks volumes about a person and/or family. In a great way!
They are cerebral and emotional – simultaneously. Libraries are the ultimate Silver Lining.
Libraries: The medicine chest of the soul.
~Library at Thebes, inscription over the door
What is more important in a library than anything else – than everything else – is the fact that it exists.
~Archibald MacLeish
I love the place; the magnificent books; I require books as I require air.
~Sholem Asch
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
~Jorge Luis Borges
Libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace and wit, reminders of order, calm and continuity, lakes of mental energy, neither warm nor cold, light nor dark…. In any library in the world, I am at home, unselfconscious, still and absorbed.
~Germaine Greer
A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you and remains a friend.
~Author Unknown
A good book should leave you… slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.
~William Styron
Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.
~Charles W. Eliot
Let books be your dining table,
And you shall be full of delights
Let them be your mattress
And you shall sleep restful nights.
~Author Unknown
Awesome post, Hol! I, too, adore a library or an independent bookstore… they offer a kind of sanctuary for the mind and soul. Love the pictures and the quotes; here is one of my favorties:
"I am simply a 'book drunkard.' Books have the same irresistible temptation for me that liquor has for its devotee. I cannot withstand them." ~ Author Unknown ~
Happy Reading~
Carol
Ah, an aesthetically rich post. Each image here music to my ears; nourishment for my soul. Have we spoken of Bookman's Alley in Evanston?
me too!
I so agree with all! The smell, sound (or lack therof)and site of a book, new or old, is one of the greatest SL's of all. Needless to say I own many books but will never own a Kindle or Nook!!