If you cannot read them [books], at any rate handle them and, as it were, fondle them. Peer into them. Let them fall open where they will. Read on from the first sentence that arrests the eye. Then turn to another. Make a voyage of discovery, taking soundings of uncharted seas. Set them back on their shelves with your own hands. Arrange them on your own plan, so that if you do not know what is in them, you at least know where they are. If they cannot be your friends, let them at any rate be your acquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do not deny them at least a nod of recognition.
Churchill presents reading as something that can begin with curiosity rather than systematic study. Even when there is not enough time to read every book fully, he suggests browsing, sampling passages and becoming familiar with where different works belong. His metaphor of a “voyage of discovery” describes books as territory that can be explored gradually and without a fixed route.
The passage also rejects the idea that a book has value only when it has been read from beginning to end. Churchill compares books with friends and acquaintances, suggesting that different levels of familiarity can still be worthwhile. More broadly, the quotation encourages an informal and exploratory approach to learning. It treats intellectual curiosity as something that can develop through repeated contact, allowing deeper interests to emerge naturally rather than requiring complete mastery from the outset.