edited by Michael F. Suarez, S.J. and H.R. Woudhuysen
(Oxford University Press, 2013)
Like any domestic object, a book takes on the imprint of its producer and its user. Old books have further value as containing the presence of many other readers in the past. yet, more than other objects, a book is felt to embody not only a physical memory but also a record of past thoughts. The book contains both its reader and its author.
Page 93.
Destroying a book, Milton says, is like an act of homicide - indeed it is worse than that, since a book encloses the life of more than one person and exists in more than one time.
Page 93.