"Ultimately, the number of books always exceeds the space they are granted."

-The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

Lire et écrire sont deux points de résistance à l’absolutisme du monde. »

Christian Bobin

« L’acte d’écrire peut ouvrir tant de portes, comme si un stylo n’était pas vraiment une plume, mais une étrange variété de passe-partout. »

Stephen King

« La lecture est l’apothéose de l’écriture. »

Alberto Manguel

Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.

A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel

“Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.”

— Alberto Manguel, “A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader's Reflections on a Year of Books”

hiç okumadığı kitaplardı bunlar, hiç okuyamayacağı kitaplar, belki okumayı denediği ama beceremediği kitaplar.

marguerite duras - acı

I don’t think that the definition of library has changed. Libraries have never been repositories solely of books. In Alexandria for instance, the model of the ideal library perhaps, there was a will to collect every book in the world, but at the same time they had maps and objects and there was a sense that this was a world of study and communication. The technology changes, and so electronic media should enter the library as long as we don’t forget that there are also books. I don’t believe in technologies that want to exclude one another. A new technology comes into the world and believes that it can bill itself on the corpse of the previous technology, but that never happens. Photography did not eliminate painting. Film did not eliminate theater and so on. One technology feeds on the vocabulary of the other, and I believe that the electronic technology has taught us to value the reading on the page, and the reading on the page has taught us what we can do on the screen. They are alternatives, but they’re certainly not synonymous.

Alberto Manguel

“In my fool hardy youth, when my friends were dreaming of heroic deeds in the realms of engineering and law, finance and national politics, I dreamt of becoming a librarian. ” ― Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night.

From BLACK WATER, edited by Alberto Manguel.

"One book calls to another unexpectedly,

creating alliances across different cultures and centuries..."

— Alberto Manguel

Book 003

The Dictionary of Imaginary Places

Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi

Harcourt Brace 2000

Thoroughly entertaining, The Dictionary of Imaginary Places holds a treasured place among my reference books. Honestly, I should pick it up more often than I do.

At night, here in the library, the ghosts have voices.

Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night

Books Read in September:

1). Packing My Library (Alberto Manguel)

2). How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (Julia Alvarez)

3). The English Teacher (Lily King)

4). Other Parents (Sarah Stovell)

5). 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write (Sarah Ruhl)

6). The Mother of All Questions (Rebecca Solnit)

7). Home/Land (Rebecca Mead)

8). A Place in the World (Frances Mayes)

9). After This (Alice McDermott)

10). Madness Is Better than Defeat (Ned Beauman)

11). Hillbilly Elegy (J.D. Vance)

“At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers - shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader. ” ― Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading

‏"قرأت في مكانٍ ما أن الشيء الوحيد الذي نستطيع أن نفعله لكي نناهض عدم واقعيّة العالم، هو أن نروي تاريخنا الخاص"

‏*ألبرتو مانغويل | كل البشر كاذبون

Kiedy byłem młody, ciągle miałem wrażenie, że tylu książek wciąż nie znam. Z wiekiem widzę, że z książkami jest tak jak z przyjaciółmi, zamiast szukać ciągle nowych, najchętniej wracam do tych najbliższych i do kilku książek, które już kiedyś czytałem. I zupełnie nie dręczy mnie już poczucie, że muszę przeczytać wszystko.

— Alberto Manguel

dönüş, yunancada nostos demek. algos, keder anlamına geliyor. yani nostalji, doyurulamamış dönüş arzusundan kaynaklanan bir keder.

milan kundera - bilmemek