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A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.

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Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.

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I think we ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book we are reading doesn't shake us awake like a blow on the skull, why bother rea...more

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Books are a narcotic.

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I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.

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We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished i...more

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I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are...more

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The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.

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And thus it happens that the reader, the closer he comes to the novel's end, the more he wishes he were back in the summer with which it begins, and f...more