In 1771, George Washington wrote, “I conceive a knowledge of books is the basis upon which other knowledge is to be built.” He was the first of many United States presidents who appreciated books and valued the power of reading. https://historyfacts.com/famous-figures/article/the-u-s-presidents-favorite-books/ ** HARRY S. TRUMAN AS A GREAT READER
Harry S. Truman was another great reader. Once, when asked by an editor of his memoirs if he liked to read himself to sleep at night, Truman answered, “No, young man, I like to read myself awake.” He was a dedicated student of history, and some of his most-read volumes included Plutarch’s Lives, Julius Caesar’s Commentaries, and Edward Gibbons’ The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The 33rd president also enjoyed the works of Robert Burns, English poet Lord Byron, and William Shakespeare (especially Hamlet, King Lear, and Othello). " History Facts website (April 6, 2025) ** QUEEN ELIZABETH II AND READING
"She'd never taken much interest in reading. She reaed, of course, as one did, but liking books was something she left to other people It was a hobby and it was in the nature of her job that she didn't have hobbies. Jogging, growing roses, chess or rock climbing, cake decoration, model aeroplanes. No Hobbies involved preferences and preferences had to be avoided . Her job was to take an interest, not to be interested herself. And besides reading wasn't doing. She was a doer. "
Alan Bennett. The Uncommon Reader (New York: Farrar,n Straus and Giroux, 2007) ** ABOUT THE COVER TO VIRGINIA WOOLF: A BIOGRAPHY by QUENTIN BELL
"The cover of the Bell biography had a photo of a young Virginia Woolf in half profile, staring off into the distance. She had a low forehead, a remarkably long face, and a prominent chin. She would in no way by contemporsry standards be considered pretty. Yet there was something about her that was truly arresting and intensely sexual."
Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. Slightly Chipped:Footnotes in Booklore (New York: St. Martin;s Press, 1999)
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Dear Editors: The Guardian writer who called Graham Norton's novels "undemanding" used a term not very useful in discussing literature. No book demands to be read. The term applies to levels of a reader's ability to enter into many worlds of fiction and nonfiction. Lassie, Come Home might be very "demanding" to an eight year old reader, but far less demanding to a reader of my advanced age. Books of all kinds invite readers in. Sometimes we accept the invitation, sometimes not. No RSVP required. Sincerely, Louis Phillips
** MILLARD FILLMORE AS AN AVID READER
Millard Fillmore was an avid reader who would do nearly anything for a book. On Christmas Eve in 1851, when the Library of Congress caught on fire, Fillmore ran to the scene with a group of Congressmen and “rendered all the service in their power” to stop the fire. Fillmore led the bucket brigade early into Christmas morning.
Sublunary,” as I found out, means “relating to the world or life on earth, especially in contrast to the spiritual world.” Created by a team of artists, printers, bookbinders, and calligraphers, these books don’t belong to the real world, at least not in the traditional sense. They can be “lost” or “unfinished,” both of which apply to Sylvia Plath’s Double Exposure (1964/2024?), a semi-autobiographical novel about a wife with an awful husband, the manuscript of which was possibly destroyed by her awful real-life husband, Ted Hughes. The existence of this book here, with its cover of a doubled Plath beneath a serifed title and published by the actual Heinemann company, suggests an alternate and more kind reality in which Plath did not die by suicide, and her manuscript had not vanished.
" Anthony Troollpe, whose literary output was enormous, became my favorite writer. I have read almiost all of his forty-seen novels. I have learned so much from him. He understood that even villains have their charming moments. He understood the world of the rich and powerful as well asv thevduc de Saint Simon did in his diaries of the court of Louis XIV, or Marcel Proust did in his brilliant Remembrance of Things Past." Dominick Dunne in The Book That Changed My Life, edited by Roxanne J. Coady & Joy Johannessen (New York: Gotham Books, 2006)
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SAM CORBIN'S FAVORITE AUTHORS "On the other hand, my favorite authors are those who use language sparingly to achieve something profound. Jenny Offill wrote in “The Department of Speculation”: “The invention of the ship is also the invention of the shipwreck.” A short story by Lydia Davis that gets me every time, in just 12 words: “Like a tropical storm, I, too, may one day become ‘better organized.’” It doesn’t take very long to say something that sticks with people for years. SAM CORBIN. "Game play" in The New York Times (March 12, 2025) ** JOHN le CARRE' UNDER GREAT PERSONAL STRESS
John le Carré said in an interview with The Guardian on April 13, 2013: "I wrote 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' at the age of thirty under intense, unshared, personal stress, and in extreme privacy. As an intelligence officer in the guise of a junior diplomat at the British Embassy in Bonn, I was a secret to my colleagues, and much of the time to myself. I had written a couple of earlier novels, necessarily under a pseudonym, and my employing service had approved them before publication. After lengthy soul-searching, they had also approved 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'. To this day, I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't."
iDMb Trivia. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. ** THE DANCE OF LANGUAGE
In a good poem, Every word dances. Listen up "do-si-do": This time we are not Square dancing.
PhillipsMiscellany 