Books can be passed around. They can be shared. A lot of people like seeing them in their houses. They are memories. People who don't understand books don't understand this. They learn from TV shows about organizing that you should get rid of the books that you aren't reading, but everyone who loves books believes the opposite. People who love books keep them around, like photos, to remind them of a great experience and so they can revisit and say, "Wow, this is a really great book."
Interpretation
Books are cherished for their memories and experiences, unlike the transient nature of TV shows.
This quote emphasizes the emotional and sentimental value that books hold for readers. Unlike merely consumable media like TV shows, books represent personal experiences, memories, and knowledge that readers choose to keep, akin to treasured photographs. Those who appreciate books find joy in their physical presence and the possibility of re-experiencing the knowledge and emotions contained within their pages, contrasting with the common advice to discard unused items.
In practice
I shared this quote in a book club meeting to discuss our emotional connections to our favorite reads.
You have no choice as a professional chef: you have to repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat until it becomes part of yourself. I certainly don't cook the same way I did 40 years ago, but the technique remains. And that's what the student needs to learn: the technique.
Every piece of marble has a statue in it waiting to be released by a person of sufficient skill to chip away the unnecessary parts. Just as the sculptor is to the marble, so is education to the soul. It releases it. For only educated people are free people. You cannot create a statue by smashing the marble with a hammer, and you cannot by the force of arms release the spirit or the soul of people.
Education must not simply teach work-it must teach life.
Oddly enough, my favorite genre is not fiction. I'm attracted by primary sources that are relevant to historical questions of interest to me, by famous old books on philosophy or theology that I want to see with my own eyes, by essays on contemporary science, by the literatures of antiquity.
Play is a child's work and this is not a trivial pursuit.
My Alma mater was books, a good library... I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.
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