Adventurous reading allows one to escape a little from the provincialities of one's home culture and the blinders of one's narrow self.

This was the time in her life that she fell upon books as the only door out of her cell. They became half her world.

We are an amnesiac culture. If you are not out there self-promoting at every junction, you're not going to be remembered.

Since I make my living as a literary journalist, not a book scout, I spend inordinate amounts of time either reading or writing.

Some travelers collect souvenirs, postcards, or bumper stickers; I bring home a pencil from the various places I visit.

I find that the Amazon comments often are exceptionally shrewd and insightful, so I'm not going to diss them. But you don't really have any guarantees that what you're reading wasn't written out of friendship or spite.