Reading quote

"If a man wants to be always in God's company, he must pray regularly and read regularly. When we pray, we talk to God; when we read, God talks to us."
                      ~Isidore of Seville

C. S. Lewis quote

"It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones."

J. R. R. Tolkien Quote

In my best moments, when I'm most connected to God, this is why I read:

The Evangelium has not abrogated legends; it has hallowed them, especially the "happy ending." The Christian has still to work, with mind as well as body, to suffer, hope, and die; but he may now perceive that all his bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed. So great is the bounty with which he has been treated that he may now, perhaps, fairly dare to guess that in Fantasy he may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation. All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know.~ J. R. R. Tolkien

Great Quote

I ran across this quote in The Craft of Research, by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams:

No place is more filled with imagined voices than a library or lab. Whether you read a book or a lab report, you silently converse with its writer--and through her with everyone else she has read. In fact, every time you go to a written source of information, you join a conversation between writers and readers that began more than five thousand years ago. (p. 16)

And that pretty much sums up why I read.