July 2008
35 posts
“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which...”
– lewis carroll
“Freely we serve,
Because we freely love, as in our will
To love or not; in...”
– john milton, paradise lost
Ray Bradbury on Literature and Love →
Wasserman: Right. And do you remember what it was about the physical contact with books which seemed to be so exciting for you?
Bradbury: A lot of it is the smell of books. There are—a lot of those bookstores were used bookstores. Some were high-quality used books and new publications, but the other bookstores were … a lot of used books, and there’s thousands of them in there, and they were...
“I had a sign over my typewriter 50 years ago which said, “Don’t think.”...”
– ray bradbury
“I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone’s away. There’s...”
– f. scott fitzgerald, the great gatsby
“A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: ‘There...”
– f. scott fitzgerald, the great gatsby
American Literary Friendships, Hers and His →
“This unusual friendship—which was almost exclusively epistolary—began in 1862...”
– American Literary Friendships, Hers and His: The Economist
“The poet was right in supposing Higginson was “occupied”; hers was a life of...”
– American Literary Friendships, Hers and His: The Economist
“I was too young then to understand how simple facts of geography and time can...”
– Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep (via robot-heart)
literacy debate--online r u really reading? →
“As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.
But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society...
“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his...”
– Albus Dumbledore Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (via affremblequotes)
“a synonym is a word you use when you can’t spell the word you first...”
– burt bacharach
great article on salman rushdie →
i’m currently reading the satanic verses and the enchantress of florence is sitting on my desk waiting to be consumed next. i find this guy completely fascinating.
““There’s something about north,” he said, “something that sets it apart from all...”
– E.B. White, Stuart Little (via scout)
“You know what? You’re an individual, and that makes people nervous. And it’s...”
– Harriet the Spy (via jackieheartsb) (via justlia) (via robot-heart)
after reading this book when i was 10 i definitely started my own spy notebook, mapped out a spy route, and tried my best to sleuth around and find juicy stuff. i would love to locate that notebook now.
“No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a...”
– John Donne (via edatrix) (via robot-heart)
if you haven't read anything by jonathan safran...
do yourself a favor and buy either everything is illuminated or extremely loud and incredibly close.
“You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from...”
– Jonathan Safran Foer (via colleenlouise) (via acidreams) (via antikris)
“The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to...”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald (via scout)
sailing to byzantium
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees -
Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick,...
william butler yeats, digitized. →
“Until nearly the end of his days he and Gonne kept an eye on each other. In 1938 he wrote “A Bronze Head” about her frequent appearances at political funerals, a “dark tomb-haunter,” so transformed from the light, gentle woman of his memory.
Almost from the beginning she had been a figure of memory. In the opening pages of the 1908 notebook he looked backward: “She said something that...
“yet, even without these dramas, our bubble-like mall existence would have come...”
– sloane crosley, i was told there’d be cake.
i was told there'd be a point.
perhaps it is best to preface this review with admitting that i picked up this book because the packaging is impeccable. i adore the cover—girly, fun—and just the right smooth texture that is so satisfying to hold. that is where my fascination with this book ended.
i enjoy collections of non-fiction stories, especially humorous vignettes a la david sedaris that earn you stares on...
“Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with...”
– Prof. Thomas Davidson (via onherway) (via unicornology) (via carmenmariah) (via cachorra) (via jeralyndwile) (via missb)