Books were the window from which I looked out of a rather meager and decidedly narrow room onto a rich and wonderful universe. I loved the look and feel of books, even the smell... Libraries were treasure houses. I always entered them with a slight thrill of disbelief that all their endless riches were mine for the borrowing.
Interpretation
Books open up new worlds and opportunities for learning and exploration.
In this quote, Zilpha Keatley Snyder expresses how books serve as portals to vast experiences and knowledge, transcending the limitations of one's immediate environment. The imagery of libraries as treasure houses emphasizes the value of literature and the excitement of discovery found within the pages of books, inviting readers to immerse themselves in the wealth of stories and information they contain.
In practice
During a school speech on the importance of reading, this quote can be used to highlight the transformative power of books.
Problems may be solved in the study which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to use all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment.
Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.
You know, you can make a small mistake in language or etiquette in Britain, or you could when I was younger, and really be made to feel it, and it's the flick of a lash, but it would sting, and especially at school where there's not much privacy, and so on. You could, yes, undoubtedly be made to feel crushed.
There are two extremes to be avoided: one is the attitude of contempt toward education, the other is the tragic snobbery of assuming that marching through an educational system is a sure cure for ignorance and mediocrity.
Education is the transmission of civilization.
In one sense, the stories I read betrayed me. Too few gave me back my mirror image. Fewer still spoke to, or acknowledged, the existence of the problems I faced as a black foster child from a dysfunctional and badly broken home.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.