A room without books is like a body without a soul. ~ Cicero
It is a man's duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessities of life. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books - even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome. ~ William Gladstone, Prime Minister UK
Books make the home.
Some girls watched Beauty and the Beast and wanted the prince. I watched it and wanted the library.
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"Our [Bare] Shelves, Our Selves", by Teddy Wane
from the New York Times' 5dec15 Future Tense section [extrapolated from A 2014 study from the sociology journal, Social Forces, regarding home libraries on 15 year olds' reading levels from 42 countries by Maria Evans, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Nevada Reno]:
After GNP, the quantity of books in one's house was the most important predictor of reading performance. The greatest effect was seen in libraries of about 100 books, which resulted in approximately 1.5 extra years of grade-level reading performance.
Libraries matter even more than money: in the U.S., with the size of libraries being equal, students coming from the top 10% of wealthiest families performed at just one extra grade level over students from the poorest 10%.
The implications are clear: owning books in the home is one of the best things you can do for your children academically. It helps of course if parents are reading to their children and reading themselves, not simply buying books by the yard as décor.
To a child, a parent's dog-eared book is a sign of a mind at work.
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Books fill my days. Not to mention my bedroom, my living room, my dining room and my closet.
Tsundoku: buying books and not reading them; letting books pile up unread on shelves or floors or nightstands
Buying a book is not about obtaining a possession, but about securing a portal. ~ Laura Miller
Money talks. Mine always says, "Wanna go to the bookstore today?"
You can't buy happiness, but you can buy books, and that's kind of the same thing.
Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks. ~ Dr. Seuss
“Being surrounded by 80 books boosted the levels to average, and literacy continued to improve until libraries reached about 350 books…”, https://getpocket.com/explore/item/growing-up-surrounded-by-books-could-have-powerful-lasting-effect-on-the-mind?utm_source=pocket-newtab
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Table 7E. Average Mathematics Scores and Books in the Home: Grade 12 in 2005
Books in the home Average Mathematics scores
>100 163
26-100 151
11-25 136
0-10 126
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
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More than 60% of low-income families have no children’s books in their home. For children aged 0-6, there is a 30-million-word gap between children from the wealthiest and poorest families. [https://worldliteracyfoundation.org/north-america/]
Do you know what they call people who hoard books? Smart. ~ Lisa Scottoline
A good book resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper.
A home without books is like a tree without birds.
You can borrow a book, but you get to keep the ideas.
Blessed are the children of bookworms, for they shall inherit the books.
There is no such thing as too many books. However, there is such as thing as not enough room.
Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. ~ Henry David Thoreau
On a cloudy day, when the dim dance of the firelight and the warmth of the sconces are not enough, the books shed their own form of light. By the hundreds, they fill the shelves that stretch across every inch of exposed wall. They rise up to the ceiling, warriors of an impenetrable army, encircling my over-sized armchair and keeping me safe as they whisper their stories softly in my ear. ~ Kelsevleigh Reber
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