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Personally speaking Frances Wilson Happily lost amid the books, the lovers ... and Jeremy Paxman

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From: The Sunday Telegraph London
Date: 20071111
Author:Frances Wilson

'The true university of these days is a collection of books,' Thomas Carlyle declared. The grey-haired prophet of Victorian England needed to read like a plant needs light, but had neither the money nor the space for the books he required. There was, of course, the Reading Room of the British Museum, but it gave him 'museum headache'. Besides, he could never find a seat, and the place was filled with 'snorers, snufflers, wheezers, spitters' and lunatics brought in by their friends to 'puddle away the time'. The only solution was to set up his own library, which would allow him to take the ...

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