The 31 best quotes about reading—an insider shares the best quotes about reading, including short quotes about the importance of reading and quotes on the reading habit.
90% of the time, I would rather be reading.
I like to read first thing in the morning, rolling over to grab a book from my nightstand. I like to read after work, when my mind is drained and a story is the escape I need. I like to read right before bed, to help me fall asleep.
I like to read in my favorite armchair, while Pepper stares at me, not getting the whole literacy thing.
And since I was about 8 I’ve dreamed of finding a way to read in the shower. Nothing annoyed me more as a kid than to be told to take a shower when I was in the middle of a chapter. (The nerve of parents.)
I’ve had this reading habit for as long as I can remember, but it didn’t start from nowhere. To this day, I can remember everything about the moment I signed my first library card at 5 or 6, and I still remember the cheesy posters in the school library with quotes about the importance of reading.
I loved that at the library I was surrounded by the best quotes about reading—they made me feel like I was part of a secret society that understood that a book was the door to everything else. And now that it’s my job to make books, I collect every single quote about reading that I can find and stockpile them for those days when motivation is low.
(I keep much of that bookish stockpile on Pinterest–follow me there for even more of the best quotes about reading + my very favorite book illustrations!)
Filling your house with the best quotes about reading is one of the most effective and enjoyable ways to instill a love of reading in kids, and it’s also the perfect reminder for us grown-ups to turn off the tv and get lost in a book instead.
So if you’re looking for inspiration and motivation to turn off the tv, put down the phone, and pick up a book, here are the 31 best quotes about reading:
The 31 best quotes about reading
“Wherever I am, if I’ve got a book with me, I have a place I can go and be happy.” – J.K. Rowling
“In the case of good books the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” – Mortimer J. Adler
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” – George R.R. Martin
“We read to know that we are not alone.” – C.S. Lewis
“We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming.” – Anna Quindlen
“Between the pages of a book is a lovely place to be.” – Unknown
“Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.” – Kathleen Norris
(Download this free Kathleen Norris quote printable here!)
“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors and the most patient of teachers.” – Charles William Eliot
“Books don’t change people; paragraphs do, sometimes even sentences.” – John Piper
“What you read when you don’t have to determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” – Oscar Wilde
“A book is proof that humans can work magic.” – Carl Sagan
“Of all things, I liked books best.” – Nikola Tesla
“I do not read for I have renounced life. I read because one life is just not enough for me.” – Abbas Al-Akkad
“Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper.” – David Quammen
“I have always imagined paradise to be a kind of library.” – Jorge Luis Borges
(Download this free Jorge Luis Borges quote printable here!)
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” – Stephen King
“There is nothing more luxurious than eating while you read—unless it be reading while you eat.” – E. Nesbit
“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” – Carl Sagan
“Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.” – Jane Smiley
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” – Frederick Douglass
“Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.” – Napoléon Bonaparte
“For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quite or excite you. Books to help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.” – Anne Lamott
“Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.” – C.S. Lewis
(Download this free C.S. Lewis quote printable here!)
“To acquire a habit of reading is to create for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” – W. Somerset Maugham
“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.” – Socrates
“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.” – Mortimer J. Adler
“Books wash away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Unknown
“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.” – Mason Cooley
“So often a visit to a bookshop has cheered me and reminded me that there are good things in the world.” – Vincent Van Gogh
“The best moments in reading are when you come across something—a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things—which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.” – Alan Bennett
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5 quick reads for the week
- Female authors recommend female authors who write about female characters for women’s history month. Is there a more exciting sentence?
- In an on-the-go world, audiobooks are a great way to get your reading in without sacrificing chores, and Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs. Darcy always has great recommended books to listen to.
- Sometimes, being bored is a good thing. Don’t trust me? Talk to the experts.
- Umm, I’m obsessed with this adorable and low-stress date idea for bookish couples.
- I just killed a maidenhair fern in my bathroom. It was gruesome. Now I really, really need this list of the hardest-to-kill real plants and most convincing fake plants so I can stop the flora-cide.
What we’re eating this week
It’s a half-and-half kind of week—we’re sort of cooking and sort of slacking off. My whole leftover smorgasbord experiment is working sort of well, except I’ll admit that it makes me a little sad to know it’s just leftovers for dinner that night. I am somehow an insufferable leftover snob and a lazy cook. Winning combination.
Sunday: I roasted a chicken my way—brined, then 45 minutes in a 425 degree oven. Jarrett’s way is to cook it propped on a beer can in the grill. Of course, this has led to an all-out war between us about who’s way is better, because we are very mature.
Monday: Leftover smorgasbord. Yay…
Tuesday: Jarrett’s in DC, so Pepper and I have the house to ourselves! We’re going to eat huge bowls of cacio e pepe on the couch and watch trash tv and not do a single chore. We deserve it?
Wednesday: I don’t know! Ha ha help…
Thursday: I’m working late, so Jarrett’s making Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala, and I love him for it.
Friday: We’re off to The Greenbrier to celebrate my MIL’s birthday!
