I merely say that all reading for pleasure is escape, whether it be Greek, mathematics, astronomy, Benedetto Croce, or The Diary of the Forgotten Man. To say otherwise is to be an intellectual snob, and a juvenile at the art of living.

(Source: lyssahumana)

It is often said that one has but one life to live, but that is nonsense. For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time.

wwnorton:

From Rhizome’s review of Alessandro Ludovico’s Post-Digital Print: The Mutation of Publishing since 1864.

Image via Post-Digital Print: The Mutation of Publishing since 1864 from Everyday Science and Mechanics magazine, 1935

lost-carcosa:

endoskeletal:

Finding comfort in this post as I lie here on an unmade bed full of unread stacks of books..

Not that I need any justification for buying more books.

books0977:

Viktoriya Sasonkina reading while smoking.

A beautiful 50s / 60s classic Hollywood glamour inspired shoot for this “Stardust” Editorial with Viktoriya Sasonkina shot by Steven Meisel and styled by Andrew Richardson for Vogue Italia September 2008. 

Sasonkina (Ukranian, 1988-) also appeared on the cover of the September 2008 Vogue Italia.

questionableadvice:

~ Kent’s New Commentary: A Manual for Young Men, by C.H. Kent, 1880

“All sympathy for real suffering is dead and buried, by novel reading. It is the natural fruit.”

questionableadvice:

~ The Duties of a Ladies’ Maid; with Directions for Conduct, and Numerous Receipts for the Toilette, James Bulcock, 1825

Reading without meditation is sterile; meditation without reading is liable to error; prayer without meditation is lukewarm; meditation without prayer is unfruitful prayer; prayer when it is fervent wins contemplation.

handbookoftradition:

“Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand.” - Ezra Pound

books0977:

Classic Lolita :: Tasha. Photograph ©2012 =UselessDevice.

“Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.” — Nora Ephron (1941-2012)