“At one magical…

“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

I cannot live without books…

“I cannot live without books; but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object.”
– Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 10 June 1815