First Impressions
by Charlie Lovett
(Alma Books, 2014)
To go out of one’s way to look bad just seemed rude.
Page 7.
I don’t care for people who worship what they don’t understand.
Page 9.
Old dusty books are the best kind.
Page 29.
A good book is like a good friend. It will stay with you for the rest of your life. When you first get to know it, it will give you excitement and adventure, and years later it will provide you with comfort and familiarity.
Page 29.
What could be more personal than a book?
Page 30.
Anything that brings pleasure to others has inestimable value.
Page 45.
Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.
Page 55.
I pick books that interest me at the time, and my interests are always changing.
Page 74.
It is only when we attach happiness to those things which are worldly and unimportant that our lives become corrupted.
Page 100.
We judge the past, if we are readers of novels, only by the output of the best writers.
Page 107.
If you mail a rare stamp it becomes worthless. If you drink a rare bottle of wine, you’re left with some recycling. But if you read a rare book it’s still there, it’s still valuable, and it’s achieved the full measure of its being. A book is to read, whether it’s worth five pounds or five thousand pounds.
Page 127.
Interesting and valuable and expensive are all different. … A book can be interesting or valuable to one person and not to another, but an expensive book is expensive for all of us.
Page 143.
A book can be valuable without being expensive, but it’s not likely to be expensive without being valuable.
Page 144.
I never keep a diary … . My books and my bookmarks are my diary.
Page 247.
Just as the body needs both food and drink, my wiring mind needs both solitude and companionship.
Page 265.