The Book Lovers’ Anthology: A Compendium of Writing about Books, Readers & Libraries published by the Bodleian Library (originally edited by R.M. Leonard)

“We should choose our books as we would our companions, for their sterling and intrinsic merit.” -C.C. Colton, “Lacon”

“The Book Lovers’ Anthology” contains snippets on reading, books and libraries from authors such as Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, Jonathan Swift and George Eliot and poems about books from the likes of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,  Elizabeth Barrett Browning and William Wordsworth.  It may seem a bit dated to some as it was first published in 1911 but I feel that love of the written word is eternal. I will definitely be pulling some more quotes out of this compilation. Until then, I leave you with this one:

“Let us not forget the genial miraculous force we have known to proceed from a book. We go musing into the vault of day and night; no constellation shines, no muse descends, the stars are white points, the roses brick-coloured dust, the frogs pipe, mice peep, and wagons creak along the road. We return to the house and take up Plutarch or Augustine, and read a few sentences or pages, and lo! the air swims with life; the front of heaven is full of fiery shapes; secrets of magnanimity and grandeur invite us on every hand; life is made up of them. Such is our debt to a book.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Thoughts on Modern Literature”