Top 36 Quotes About Unread Books
#1. But who doesn't have a lot of unread books? It's nice, though, to know they are there.
Alexander McCall Smith
#2. The history that lies inert in unread books does no work in the world.
Carl Becker
#3. How many books do you have here?" Corliss asked. "Two million, one hundred thousand, and eleven," the librarian said proudly, but Corliss was frightened. What happens to the world when that many books go unread? And what happens to the unread authors of those unread books?
Sherman Alexie
#5. A library at night is full of sounds: the unread books can't stand it any longer and announce their contents, some boasting, some shy, some devious.
Helen Oyeyemi
#6. Flora had also learned the degraded art of 'tasting' unread books, and now, whenever her skimming eye lit on a phrase about heavy shapes, or sweat, or howls or bedposts, she just put the book back on the shelf, unread.
Stella Gibbons
#7. There was that special smell made up of paper, ink, and dust; the busy hush; the endless luxury of thousands of unread books. Best of all was the eager itch of anticipation as you went out the door with your arms loaded down with books.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder
#8. John Rebus ~ he tried to walk through the isles (of the book shop) without focusing. If he focused he would become interested and if he became interested he would buy. He already had over fifty unread books at home, piled next to his bed
Ian Rankin
#9. The truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more.
Gabriel Zaid
#10. I am not by any stretch of the imagination a tidy person, and the piles of unread books on the coffee table and by my bed have a plaintive, pleading quality to me - 'Read me, please!'
Linda Grant
#11. He wondered what percentage of the world's art was actually kept in bank vaults and the like. Like unread books and unplayed music, did it matter that art went unseen?
Ian Rankin
#12. Zaid's finest moment, however, comes in his second paragraph, when he says that "the truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more."
That's me! And you, probably! That's us!
Nick Hornby
#13. She thought of the library, so shining white and new; the rows and rows of unread books; the bliss of unhurried sojourns there and of going out to a restaurant, alone, to eat.
Maud Hart Lovelace
#14. it seems to me that people have far more unread books than they once did, ranging from three to more than forty.
Marie Kondo
#15. Nevertheless we cherish all books, especially the unread ones, for who knows what secrets they might yield one day?
- p.397, as by Larry Zagorski, in his short story "The City of the Sun
Jake Arnott
#16. As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air.
Maggie Stiefvater
#17. Living wild species are like a library of books still unread. Our heedless destruction of them is akin to burning the library without ever having read its books.
John Dingell
#18. Umberto Eco is the owner of a large personal library of almost 30,000 books that he has not read. [To him] read books are far less valuable than unread ones.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
#19. So many broken promises, each day an aborted wish, a lost object, a misplaced unread book, cluttering the room like an attic with discarded possessions.
Anais Nin
#20. That was one thing about books: once you read them they couldn't be unread.
Lev Grossman
#21. Every new book we read in our brief and busy lives means that a classic is left unread.
B.R. Myers
#22. Moments of pure relaxation were rare for me. There was always the nagging of books unread, work undone, time a-wasting.
Laurie R. King
#23. Corliss had never once considered the fate of library books. She'd never wondered how many books go unread. She loved books. How could she not worry about the unread? She felt like a disorganized scholar, an inconsiderate lover, an abusive mother, and a cowardly soldier.
Sherman Alexie
#24. Can you smell it? The scent of new books. Unread adventures. Friends you haven't met yet, hours of magical escapism awaiting you.
Katarina Bivald
#25. Suddenly, Walter was aware of all the things he did not know. There were hundreds--thousands--of books in the world, and he had read only a handful of them. One day he would die, a myriad of books unread, his knowledge of the world incomplete.
Barbara Wersba
#26. I suddenly had a little epiphany: all the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal.
Nick Hornby
#27. All the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal ... But with each passing year, and with each whimsical purchase, our libraries become more and more able to articulate who we are, whether we read the books or not.
Nick Hornby
#28. Not everybody has time to pay attention fully, or not everybody has the time to read a book. Some people refuse to read books, and I'm just an unread book. Open me!
Lil B
#29. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market alow you to put there.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
#30. An unread book does nobody any good. Stories happen in the mind of a reader, not among symbols printed on a page.
Brandon Mull
#31. It made the Baudelaire sisters a little sad to see all those books sitting in the library unread and unnoticed, like stray dogs or lost children that nobody wanted to take home.
Lemony Snicket
#32. Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don't you agree?
Christopher Paolini
#33. Collect books, even if you don't plan on reading them right away. Nothing is more important than an unread library.
John Waters
#34. Blockbusting fiction is bought as furniture. Unread, it maintains its value. Read, it looks like money wasted. Cunningly, Americans know that books contain a person, and they want the person, not the book.
Anthony Burgess
#35. I wonder at times if we're not all blind. It just seems there are an abundance of books unread, paint strokes not admired, and performances unattended. So much attention painstakingly sought and not given.
Richelle E. Goodrich
#36. To put an end to the spirit of inquiry that has characterized the West it is not necessary to burn the books. All we have to do is to leave them unread for a few generations.
Robert Maynard Hutchins
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