“I'm old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised.”

— Wisława Szymborska

Source: Nonrequired Reading

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I'm old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised." by Wisława Szymborska?

Wisława Szymborska photo

Wisława Szymborska 92

Polish writer 1923–2012

Related quotes

“The clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who love books, but do not live by books.”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

“A book that one has not read yet is always more exciting than a book one has memorized.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

“It’s kind of an old-fashioned book…It’s long; it has a lot of characters; it takes a big theme. It isn’t a navel-staring, dysfunctional-family thing that’s so beloved of most American writers. It’s different, but I think people probably miss those books that were written some time ago – the big book that was written with care.”

Annie Proulx (1935) American novelist, short story and non-fiction author

On her novel Barkskin in “Annie Proulx: ‘I’ve had a life. I see how slippery things can be’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/05/annie-proulx-ive-had-a-life-i-see-how-slippery-things-can-be in The Guardian (2016 Jun 5)
Personal life and writing career

“They think I’m old-fashioned? Is being against racism and hatred old-fashioned? OK, I’m old-fashioned.”

China Miéville book The Junket

The Junket (p. 320)
Short Fiction, Three Moments of an Explosion (2015)

“They say I'm old-fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast!”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

“At present I'm re-reading Traherne's Centuries of Meditations which I think almost the most beautiful book (in prose, I mean, excluding poets) in English.”

Thomas Traherne (1636–1674) English poet

C. S. Lewis, letter to Arthur Greeves in December 1941. http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=978
Criticism

“The happiest and most glorious hours of my life with books have been with German books.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

The Observer (24 April 1966)
1960s

“Anyone who thinks one book has all the answers hasn't read enough books.”

Brian K. Vaughan (1976) American screenwriter, comic book creator

Variant: ... anyone who thinks one book has all the answers hasn't read enough books.
Source: Saga, Vol. 6

“I'm going to be dead before I read the books I'm going to read.”

Tom Stoppard (1937) British playwright

“Never read any book that is not a year old.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

In Praise of Books
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Related topics