The Sanctuary of a Preternatural

To put the pudding in the puff: she had retreated to the library, her favorite sanctuary in any house, only to happen upon an unexpected vampire.

Soulless, Gail Carriger

Quiet in the Library

"It's quiet in the Library because all the books are holding their breath waiting to see if you will choose them."

Zombie in the Library

The man wears dark sunglasses.

Adam recognizes him. It is the same man from his mother's favorite movie.

It is the Librarian.

- Return to the Library of Doom: Zombie in the Library, Michael Dahl and Bradford Kendall

Matilda and her use of Libraries, Part 5

From then on, every morning, as soon as her mother went to Bingo, Matilda walked the ten blocks to the library and devoured one book after another. When she finished all the children's books she started wondering around in search of something else. Mrs. Phelps, the librarian, who had been watching her with fascination for the last few weeks offered Matilda some valuable library information. "Did you know you could have your very own library card? Then you could take books home and you wouldn't have to walk here everyday. You could take as many as you like." "That would be wonderful." So, Matilda's strong young mind continued to grow; nurtured by all those authors who'd sent their books out into the world. Like ships onto the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: "you are not alone."

- Matilda, Matilda, 1996

Libraries and Souls

To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.

- Cicero

Need Libraries?

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

-Cicero

Matilda and her use of Libraries, Part 4

Matilda: Adopt me, Miss Honey! You can adopt me.
Harry Wormwood: Look, I don't have time for all these legalities!
Matilda: One second, dad, I have the adoption papers.
Zinnia Wormwood: What? Where'd you get those?
Matilda: From a book in the library. I've had them since I was big enough to Xerox.

- Matilda, Matilda, 1996

Matilda and her use of Libraries, Part 3

Harry Wormwood: Are you in this family? Dinner timne is family time. What is this trash you're reading?
Matilda: It's not trash, Daddy, it's lovely. It's called "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville.
Harry Wormwood: Moby what? This is Filth! Trash!
Matilda: It's not mine! It's a library book!
Harry Wormwood: I'm fed up with all this reading! You're a Wormwood, you start acting like one! Now sit up and look at the TV.

- Matilda, Matilda, 1996

Matilda and her use of Libraries, Part 2

Harry Wormwood: Where'd all this come from?
Matilda: The library.
Harry Wormwood: The library? You've never set foot in a library. You're only four years old.
Matilda: Six-and-a-half.
Harry Wormwood: You're four!
Matilda: Six-and-a-half!

- Matilda, Matilda, 1996

Matilda and her use of Libraries, Part 1

I really hope you have a search warrant. According to a constitutional law book I read in the library, if you don't have one, you could lose your job or even go to federal prison.

- Matilda, Matilda, 1996

The Great Gatsby

I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Chapter III

Funny Letters from Famous People

I stumbled across Funny Letters from Famous People at the library while helping to weed the collection of nonfiction. It is a book with a large number of letters from well known persons, letters which contain many funny moments. I thought I would post a few examples of the wonderful comedy in this book.



Abraham Lincoln, in response to a request for a "sentiment and an autograph:"
Dear Madam: When you ask from a stranger that which is of interest only to yourself, always enclose a stamp. There's your sentiment, and here's your autograph. A. Lincoln

George Bernard Shaw, to Winston Churchill, inviting him to his play's opening night:
Have reserved two tickets for my first night. Come and bring a friend, if you have one.

Churchill's reply:
Impossible to come first night. Will come second night, if you have one.

Mark Twain to William Dean Howells:
In 1907, Twain sent a letter to the N.Y. Times and signed it on behalf of his friend, William Dean Howells, considered a leading man of letters in America at that time. He sent a copy of the letter to Howells with this note:
Howells, it is an outrage the way the govment is acting so I sent this complaint to the N.Y. Times with your name signed because it would have more weight. Mark.

Charles Dickens has several funny letters in this book. Here is one:
Dickens wrote this letter to John Bennett, the owner of a clock repair shop:

Gad's Hill Place
Higham by Rochester, Kent
Monday night
Fourteenth September, 1863
My Dear Sir:
Since my hall clock was sent to your establishment to be cleaned it has gone (as indeed it always has) perfectly well, but has struck the hours with great reluctance, and after enduring internal agonies of a most distressing nature, it has now ceased striking altogether. Though a happy release for the clock, this is not convenient to the household. If you can send down any confidential person with whom the clock can confer, I think it may have something on its works that it would be glad to make a clean breast of.
Faithfully yours,
Charles Dickens

Lady Bird Johnson

“Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest."

Andrew Carnegie

"There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration."

Wordle

Thanks to Dickensblog, I discovered Wordle and have created my own little random quotes!

Ta-da!:









Carried away, me?