"He added, ‘Zaubermaus, if you ever meet someone and you notice they are carrying a book, say “Wunderbar!” and rejoice. ‘**This is because books are the finest conversation-starters in the world and to discuss a book is to have a real conversation with a stranger and not banal small talk**. Better yet, if that book is one you have read or by an author you yourself admire, then you immediately have something in common with that person to talk about—as I did with your mother. "‘A book can also give you insight into that person’s character: **first and foremost, that that person is curious, because it is only the curious who read**. The boorish and the arrogant do not read because they think they know everything already.’ "He glanced over at my mother and saw that she had put down the novel she’d been reading and was observing our conversation. ‘Oh, please, don’t stop. You’re on a roll, cowboy,’ she said. Papa said, ‘Your mother, for instance, was reading a [[Sherlock Holmes]] book. This told me instantly that here was a lady who just enjoyed a good story, a grand mystery well told. Some readers turn up their noses at such books, considering them to be too lowbrow. But not I. One who reads such a book reads it for pleasure, for joy. That book revealed to me, in a single glance, that here was a woman who possessed a whimsy for pure joy. And I wanted to get to know such a soul.’" ([Location 452](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C5GYQ94Y&location=452)) --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[reading-books]], [[curiosity]] **Source** -- [[20250424015611 - B - Mr Einstein's Secretary]]