A Quiet Sort of Heroism
February 11, 2012
It’s a quiet sort of heroism, the making and keeping of books. You don’t get medals for sitting in the library each day, scratching away, writing it all down. Still less for dusting the shelves. But it is what civilisation is made of: the collective memory, passed on, passed down.
-Katherine Swift, The Morville Hours
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A collective memory … One of the many things to love about books.
Yes, the collective memory, “passed on, passed down.” I had forgotten to look at the books on the shelves towering beside me in this way. Now I can almost hear them buzzing… they’re having a conversation… all the things they’ve seen… the things they have to tell…
Lovely quote. Especially for the book dusters! So true, as Julia says, I often feel as if I’ve just walked into a room where conversation has abruptly ceased when I enter the library :)
What a beautiful passage!
Lovely quote and photo of old books to go with it. As much as I have embraced my eReader for travel I can’t imagine my life or home without printed books.