“A friend once told me that the real message Bram Stoker sought to convey in 'Dracula' is that a human being needs to live hundreds and hundreds of years to get all his reading done; that Count Dracula, basically nothing more than a misunderstood bookworm, was draining blood from the necks of 10,000 hapless virgins not because he was the apotheosis of pure evil but because it was the only way he could live long enough to polish off his extensive reading list. But I have no way of knowing if this is true, as I have not yet found time to read 'Dracula.” IfsWayNeedsYearsHumansLongRealDoneEnoughEvilReadingFoundHuman BeingsKnowingBloodPureMessagesListsNecksVirginsMisunderstoodPolishDrainingBookwormsApotheosisPure EvilStokerCount DraculaExtensive Reading Author:Joe Queenan
“Reading is the way mankind delays the inevitable. Reading is the way we shake our fist at the sky. As long as we have these epic, improbable reading projects arrayed before us, we cannot breathe our last: Tell the Angel of Death to come back later; I haven't quite finished Villette.” WayLongLastsReadingSkyMankindHavensProjectsAngelFinishedBreatheInevitableShakesEpicDelayFistsImprobableVilletteAngel Of Death Author:Joe Queenan
“The world is changing, but I am not changing with it. There is no e-reader or Kindle in my future. My philosophy is simple: Certain things are perfect the way they are. The sky, the Pacific Ocean, procreation and the Goldberg Variations all fit this bill, and so do books. Books are sublimely visceral, emotionally evocative objects that constitute a perfect delivery systemBooks that we can touch; books that we can smell; books that we can depend on. Books that make us believe, for however short a time, that we shall all live happily ever after.” WorldWayBelieveBookPhilosophyCertainSimplePerfectSkyObjectsDependsReaderFitOceanBillsSmellVariationMy FutureDeliveryPacificHappily Ever AfterEver AfterKindlesVisceralProcreationPacific Ocean Author:Joe Queenan
“Books did not need to be beautiful back in the Fifties, because nothing else was beautiful back then. Books were simply there: you read them because they were diverting or illuminating or in some way useful but not because the books themselves were aesthetically appealing.” WayNeedsBookBeautifulIlluminating Author:Joe Queenan
