We’ve sourced some of the most interesting and thought-provoking Old Books Quotes from Bernard Baruch, Barbara Hambly, Michael Dirda, Constance Zimmer, Jack Bowman. Each of the following quotes is overflowing with creativity, and knowledge.
Old books that have ceased to be of service should no more be abandoned than should old friends who have ceased to give pleasure.
It’ll take a while for all those strange old books that I love to show up on digital: books that aren’t current bestsellers but aren’t public-domain freebies, either.
People sometimes think that I bring home all these old books because I’m addicted, that I’m no better than a hoarder with a houseful of crumbling newspapers.
I have this obsession with really cool, old books.
I love old books. They tell you stories about their use. You can see where the fingerprints touched the pages as they held the book open. You can see how long they lingered on each page by the finger stains.
You know what it’s like: you don’t want to read your old books again. All you can see are the flaws, what you would do differently.
Oddly enough, my favorite genre is not fiction. I’m attracted by primary sources that are relevant to historical questions of interest to me, by famous old books on philosophy or theology that I want to see with my own eyes, by essays on contemporary science, by the literatures of antiquity.
Typically, a book is published and gets one season in the sun. Eventually, you write another book, and maybe your old books get a bump, but my books seem to keep being discovered and recommended to new people of all ages.
I am something of an aficionado of thrift stores. In my youth, I regularly searched their shelves for old books.
I love everything that’s old, – old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.
In my home country, there was a little shop with old books, but it was really in the countryside. You couldn’t find English books. I found this very avant-garde American art book that had information about Georgia O’Keeffe. I was very much impressed by her.
The ‘Backlisted’ podcast describes itself as ‘giving new life to old books’. In each episode, John Mitchinson and Andy Miller are joined by a guest from the world of books who brings along some overlooked gem to enthuse about.
