No Five Finger Discounts at the Library

"A dictionary from the seventh century B.C. carries this prayer: 'May Ishtar bless the reader who will not alter this tablet nor place it elsewhere in the library, and may She denounce in anger he who dares withdraw it from this building.' I have placed this warning on the wall of my own library to ward off borrowers in the night." --page 109

"All that remains of an Athenian library: an inscription stating that opening times are 'from the first to the sixth hour' and that 'it is forbidden to take works out of the library.'" --Frontispiece