Saturday, November 10, 2007

Borges on paradise

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.

- Jorge Luis Borges

When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes.

- Desiderius Erasmus

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

- Anna Quindlen

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

that's not your library, byron, is it?

Jill said...

At our 'King's Kids' group this Friday afternoon, we were attempting to teach the kids that "all God's promises are YES in Jesus".
A difficult concept for many adults, let alone 5-7 year olds.
Anyway, we were talking about God's promise to Abraham to give him land and how he had fulfilled that promise by giving the Israelites the Promised Land. I asked the kids, what special place has God promised to us through Jesus?
"Australia?" came the tentative reply. I said, what's a place that will be even better than Australia?
"Queensland!" was the confident answer.
We eventually got to heaven, but it was a bit of a stretch.
Obviously the Queensland Travel Industry has got nothing to worry about.... beautiful one day, heavenly the next.

byron smith said...

Jill that's hilarious!
However, you might want to check out my series on heaven sometime to find my thoughts on the subject. Summary: I think the first two kids were closer to the mark than many Christians think...

Anon - seen in part, through a mirror dimly.

One of Freedom said...

My kids seem to love books, I read to them all the time. It is my wife who needs convincing that my books can take a more prominant place in our living space. Right now I have them all crammed into shelves in my basement office. Although I tend to emerge from the basement with stacks of books to sprinkle liberally throughtout the house. Over the holidays I have permission to build a custom shelf for my office to replace a couple rickety old shelves and maximize the space. That will be joyful.

Drew said...

Then there's Derrida in the opening pages of Of Grammatology; 'the end of the book shows itself in the strange proliferation of libraries', (that's as near as I can make it from memory).

We have strange relationships with books...

Anonymous said...

There is no such thing as a worthless book though there are some far worse than worthless; no book that is not worth preserving, if its existence may be tolerated; as there may be some men whom it may be proper to hang, but none should be suffered to starve.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Hecta said...

Have you read "The Uncommon Reader"? It was fun.

byron smith said...

No, I haven't. What's it about?