Because there is nothing I would rather do than rummage through bookshops, I went at once to Hastings & Sons Bookshop upon receiving your letter. I have gone to them for years, always finding the one book I wanted - and then three more I hadn't known I wanted.

Mary Ann Shaffer

Categorized in : Son Book Finding The One

I have gone to [this bookshop] for years, always finding the one book I wanted - and then three more I hadn’t known I wanted.

Mary Ann Shaffer

finding-the-one book years

I don't want to be married just to be married. I can't think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can't talk to, or worse, someone I can't be silent with.

Mary Ann Shaffer

marriage life thinking

That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you to another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive - all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.

Mary Ann Shaffer

reading sight book

Men are more interesting in books than they are in real life.

Mary Ann Shaffer

real men book

Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. How delightful if that were true.

Mary Ann Shaffer

secret perfect book

I hope, too, that my book will illuminate my belief that love of art - be it poetry, storytelling, painting, sculpture, or music - enables people to transcend any barrier man has yet devised.

Mary Ann Shaffer

men book art

I think you learn more if you're laughing at the same time.

Mary Ann Shaffer

learning teacher thinking

I never met a man half so true as a dog. Treat a dog right, and he'll treat you right. He'll keep you company, be your friend, and never ask you no questions. Cats is different, but I never held that against 'em.

Mary Ann Shaffer

cat dog men

I love seeing the bookshops and meeting the booksellers-- booksellers really are a special breed. No one in their right mind would take up clerking in a bookstore for the salary, and no one in his right mind would want to own one-- the margin of profit is too small. So, it has to be a love of readers and reading that makes them do it-- along with first dibs on the new books.

Mary Ann Shaffer

reading mind book

Naturally curly hair is a curse, and don't ever let anyone tell you different.

Mary Ann Shaffer

curly-hair different hair

Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.

Mary Ann Shaffer

ruins reading book

My worries travel around in my head on their well worn path

Mary Ann Shaffer

worn path worry

Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb.

Mary Ann Shaffer

dumb grief light

It was amazing to me then, and still is, that so many people who wander into bookshops don't really know what they're after--they only want to look around and hope to see a book that will strike their fancy. And then, being bright enough not to trust the publisher's blurb, they will ask the book clerk the three questions: (1) What is it about? (2) Have you read it? (3) Was it any good?

Mary Ann Shaffer

clerks book people

Isn't that something-to know your own soul by hearsay, instead of its own tidings? Why should I let a preacher tell me if I had one or not? If I could believe I hada soul, all by myself, then I could listen to its tidings all by myself.

Mary Ann Shaffer

soul should believe

Treat a dog right and he'll treat you right - he'll keep you company, be your friend, never ask you no questions. Cats is different, but I never held that against them.

Mary Ann Shaffer

cat different dog

Life goes on." What nonsense, I thought, of course it doesn't. It's death that goes on.

Mary Ann Shaffer

life-goes-on nonsense goes-on

People don't know how chickens can turn on you, but they can -- just like mad dogs.

Mary Ann Shaffer

mad dog people

Those times, I tried to think of something happy, something I'd liked - but not something I loved, for that made it worse.

Mary Ann Shaffer

made-it made thinking

His writings have made me his friend.

Mary Ann Shaffer

made writing