'But cast away the thirst after books, that thou mayest not die murmuring, but cheerfully, truly, and from thy heart thankful to the gods'
its at the end of the third paragraph of his meditations. Why do you suppose he says this,
I think this will be similar to what Pascal mentions at the beginning of his Pensees; where he contrasts ignorance and idle curiosity which pursues knowledge to no end.
and does he want us to thirst to read his book?
Why are you supposing this? Shakespeare wrote in order to be heard and for posterity (it's there in his sonnets) - but Marcus was not writing for posterity (do you have a quote in the meditations to bear out this?) ; he is writing in the way that Foucault mentions in his essay On the technology of souls where he addresses how writing was considered a technique in Stoicism/Christianity in order to still the passions; and in order to understand himself.
