Tilly and the Bookwanderers Quotes

“Books can change minds and change worlds, open doors and open minds, and plant seeds that can grow into magical or even terrifying things. Stories are things to be loved and respected at the same time; never underestimate the power of them.”
― Anna James, The Bookwanderers

“Be brave, be curious, be kind.”
― Anna James, Tilly and The Bookwanderers

“Some people see a bookshop as an archive, or a shrine, or even a time machine. But I think a bookshop is like a map of the world. There are infinite paths you can take through it and none of them are right or wrong. Here in a bookshop we give readers landmarks to help them find their way, but every reader has to learn to set their own compass.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“The books we love when we’re growing up shape us in a special way, Tilly. The characters in the books we read help us decide who we want to be.”
― Anna James, The Bookwanderers

“Friends should bring out the best in you, not be the same as you. I’m sure you’re someone’s perfect fit.”
― Anna James, The Bookwanderers

“Are the things in your imagination less real than the things in front of you? Is this rose more real than you? Do the books you've read mean less to you because they haven't really happened to you? Do daydreams at midday or nightdreams at midnight mean nothing?”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“So nowadays I try to make a little more space for the impossible to happen.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“Well, I've listened to the audiobook, if that counts.' 'It definitely counts,' Tilly said.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“. . . because the writer is saying that our dreams and our stories matter. I think it's quite beautiful that you can read the whole book as Alice telling her sister a story. And then Alice's sister is thinking about passing on the story to their future children, because stories last much longer than we do. Our stories are how we will be remembered - so we've got to make sure they are worth telling.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“Tilly sometimes felt like there had been a lesson where friendship had been explained, but she’d been out sick and had never quite been able to catch up.”
― Anna James, The Bookwanderers

“A bit of nonsense never hurt anyone ...”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“Often characters in books are considerably more consistent than the people around us. All that messy life stuff does rather get in the way.”
― Anna James, The Bookwanderers

“I think a bookshop is like a map of the world. There are infinite paths you can take through it and none of them are right or wrong. Here in a bookshop we give readers landmarks to help them find their way, but every reader has to learn to set their own compass.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“…because stories last much longer than we do. Our stories are how we will be remembered – so we’ve got to make sure they are worth telling.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“bookshop is like a map of the world.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“But we're all anomalies in one way or another - it's what makes being alive beautiful. We're more than neat plot devices; we're contradictory and confusing, and it's wonderful. There's nothing wrong with a few contradictions, and I think you might have to embrace them, as it would already seem that there are going to be some unpredictable side effects caused by your dad being fictional.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“I'm not sure best friends are a one-size-fits-all sort of situation, Tilly,' Grandad said carefully. 'Sometimes a person who becomes a friend is the least likely person you'd expect. friends should bring out the best in you, not be the same as you. I'm sure you're someone's perfect fit.”
― Anna James, Pages & Co.: The Bookwanderers

“Well, I've listened to the audiobook, if that counts.' 'It definietly counts,' Tilly said.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“You’re so much like her, Matilda. I don’t want to make you feel like Harry Potter, but you really do have her eyes,’ Amelia said, and Oskar struggled to suppress a giggle.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“I guess a book about a nice safe place where nothing happens would be kind of boring and no one would read it.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“Legere est Peregrinari.” “What does that mean?” Tilly said, pointing. “It’s Latin,” Grandad explained. “It doesn’t have an easy English translation, but the verb peregrinor means to travel about, to roam or to wander, so it essentially means ‘to read is to wander.’ It’s the motto of the Underlibrary.”
― Anna James, The Bookwanderers

“Well, is Wonderland really real at all? Is Wonderland more real than where Alice has come from, or where you have come from? You're both visitors to the land, and who's to say which or where or who has the greatest claim on reality?" the cat said.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“. . . but the baddies are more interesting sometimes, don't you think? Or the heroes who aren't always very heroic. People who do the right thing for the wrong reasons or the wrong thing for the right reasons.”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“LEGERE EST PEREGRINARI”
― Anna James, Tilly and the Bookwanderers

“Often it’s the things that don’t come naturally to us that are the most important,”
― Anna James, The Bookwanderers

“Our stories are how we will be remembered—so we’ve got to make sure they are worth telling.”
― Anna James, The Bookwanderers

“Well, you never know what you might find, being in the wrong place at the right time,”
― Anna James, The Bookwanderers

“I know you by heart. You are inside my heart.”
― Anna James, The Bookwanderers

“You know when you walk into a bookshop and you see all those thousands of books lined up in front of you? That intoxicating feeling of knowing that behind each cover is a different world to explore, like thousands of tiny portals? That adrenaline rush just before you open a new book? The thrill of being surrounded by fellow book lovers? That is what fuels bookwandering, and it comes to life in bookshops.”
― Anna James, The Bookwanderers

“You mean the sort of situation where you find out you live in a magical bookshop and you can talk to your favorite characters?”
― Anna James, The Bookwanderers