Sandi
"There are also books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story, Bobby. Don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read sometimes for the words- the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers that won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that...
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"There are also books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story, Bobby. Don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read sometimes for the words- the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers that won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book."
-Hearts in Atlantis, Stephen King
~
*Please send me a note if you want to add me as a friend. I don't mean to be rude, but I just want to know why you want to add me to your friends list. Have a good day, hope you find that book you were looking for! *
:)
"There's always something to occupy the inquiring mind."
-The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
~
"... and it was not very wonderful that Catherine, who had by nature nothing heroic about her, should prefer... at the age of fourteen, to books, or at least books of information, for provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be gained from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she had never any objection to books at all. But from fifteen to seventeen she was in training for a heroine; she read all works as heroines must read to supply their memories with those quotations which are so serviceable and so soothing in the vicissitudes of their eventful lives."
" 'I will read you their names directly; here they are in my pocket-book. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time. '
'...but are they all horrid? Are you sure they are all horrid?'
'Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss Andrews, a sweet girl, one of the sweetest creatures in the world, has read every one of them.' "
-Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
~
"He considered his disposition as of the sort which must suffer heavily, uniting very strong feelings with quiet,serious, and retiring manners, and a decided taste for reading and sedentary pursuits."
" 'I am sure Lady Russell would like him. He is just Lady Russell's sort. Give him a book, and he will read all day long.'
'Yes, that he will!' exclaimed Mary tauntingly. 'He will sit poring over his book, and not know when a person speaks to him, or when one
drops ones' scissors, or anything that happens.' "
-Persuasion, Jane Austen
~
"And books! ...she would buy them all over and over again; she would buy up every copy, I believe, to prevent their falling into unworthy hands; and she would have every book that tells her how to admire an old twisted tree. "
-Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
~
"Yet it seemed to Bega that if she could continue to read, which had come so easily to her... then that would be a life which take every ounce of her strength. She wanted no less. She loved to see the shapes and strokes of line and turn them into words: she loved the idea of battling against enemies external and internal and all her will being consumed in that battle."
"I had never felt so rich as when I was allowed to be alone in that library, reading..."
"It is impossible to get enough books, don't you find? But where are we without them? Just words on the wind... Not words on the mind."
"...who had heard him tell the story many times, but knew that he needed to repeat it to lessen the pain of it..."
-Credo, Melvynn Bragg
~
"... the word book acted as a transient stimulus..."
"I too, liked reading, though of a frivolous and childish kind. I could not digest or comprehend the serious or substantial."
"... I seldom put, and never keep things in order; I am careless; I forget rules; I read when I should learn my lessons; I have no method: and sometimes I say, like you, I cannot bear to be subjected to systematic arrangements."
" 'Have you read much?'
'Only such books as came my way; and they have not been numerous, or very learned.' "
-Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
~
"Douglas knows about stuff like this because all he ever does is read, and sometimes he reads actual books, as opposed to comic books."
-Missing: When Lightning Strikes, Meg Cabot a.k.a. Jenny Carroll
~
"Douglas has more books- and comic books- than anyone I know. Still, if you wanted to borrow one, and took it down off the shelf and forgot to mention it to him, Douglas would notice right away it was missing, even though there are maybe a thousand other ones that look exactly like it right on the shelf beside it. Douglas is one of those books people."
-Missing: Sanctuary, Meg Cabot a.k.a. Jenny Carroll
~
" We stayed up really late reading Tina's teenage love novels... But then Tina said even though she loves reading those books, she never takes them as a guide to real life. Because how many times in life does anybody ever get amnesia? And when do cute young European terrorists ever take anybody hostage in the girl's locker room? And if they did, wouldn't be on the day when you're wearing your worst underwear, the kind with the holes and loose elastic, and a bra that doesn't match, and not a pink silk camisole and tap pants, like the heroine of that particular book?
She has a point."
-The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
~
" 'Here, for you to read. I believe it will adequately illustrate my point.'
Grandmere had drawn out a book from her Gucci bag and handed it to me. I looked down at it incredulously.
'Jane Eyre?' I couldn't believe it.
'Grandmere, I saw the movie. And no offense, but it was way boring.'
'Movie,' Grandmere said with a sniff. 'Read that book, Amelia, and see if it doesn't teach you a thing or two about how men and women relate to one another.' "
"Tina, after reading the list, admitted tearfully that we were right, that romantic heroines from literature really were her friends, and that she could not, in good conscience, forsake them."
-The Princess Diaries IV, Princess in Waiting, Meg Cabot
~
"Argh! Mysteries are okay in books, but in real life, they kind of suck."
" 'But Mia, you're pure and good of heart,' Boris pointed out to me. 'People who are pure and good of heart always beat out evil.'
Um, yeah. In books like The Lord of The Rings, for crying out loud."
"But whatever! Belle and I have a LOT in common: We both always have our head in a book... and everyone thinks we're weird."
" 'Maybe things like the lottery and television were invented to sell products, bilk workers of their hard-earned cash, and lull us into a false sense of complacency, and distract us from the true horrors of the world around us. But maybe we NEED those distractions, so that during our leisure time we can enjoy ourselves.' I went on. 'Is there something wrong with, after our work is done, hanging out... Or singing karaoke? Or reading comic books? Does something have to be complicated and hard to understand to be culture? A hundred years from now, after we're all dead from the Yellowstone caldera, or the ice caps melting, or no more petroleum, or killer algae taking over the planet, when whatever remains of human civilization looks back at early twenty-first society, what do you think is going to better describe what our lives were really like- an essay on the ways the media exploit us, or a single episode of Sailor Moon?' I'm sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, give me anime or give me death.' "
-The Princess Diaries VI, Princess in Training - Meg Cabot
~
"I didn't want to write what I wrote next. Really. It HURT me to say it.But someone HAD to. Because Tina just can't live in Tinaland for the rest of her life. She just can't.
Tina. Those are books.
But Tina wasn't backing down.
Your Precious Gift is a BOOK. How come it's right and not the sheik books?"
-The Princess Diaries VIII, After Eight-Meg Cabot
~
"Mia- what is that you're reading?
It's noting,Tina. Just a journal belonging to one of my ancestresses.
Does it have a hot romance in it?
Um... not really. It's actually kind of boring... She, along with everybody in the palace, dies of the plague at the end.
That doesn't sound like your kind of read at all.
Yeah, I know. I don't know what's come over me lately."
-The Princess Diaries IX, Princess Mia-Meg Cabot
~
"Tina is the person who introduced me to romance novels, who got me to appreciate them and realize how fabulously cool they are, not just as an introduction into the publishing world (although more of them are published than any other genre, so your chances of getting published are statistically higher if you write a romance novel, as opposed to, say, a science fiction novel), but because they're the perfect story. You have a strong female protagonist, a compelling male lead, a conflict that keeps them apart, and then, after a lot of nail-baiting, a satisfying conclusion... the ultimate happy ending.
Why would anyone want to write anything else, really?"
"... one small historical novel isn't going to change the world. But it would be lovely if it made a few people as happy reading it as it made me while writing it."
"...like something out of a book- something that's just not going to happen.
Ever."
"...everyone laughs at romance writers (until they actually read a romance)."
"And well, I love romance novels... they're so satisfying , and proven to be stress relievers..."
"Life isn't a romance novel. The truth is, the reason romance novels sell well- the reason why everyone loves them- is because no one's life is actually like that. Everyone wants their life to be like that.
But no one's life really is."
- The Princess Diaries X, Forever Princess- Meg Cabot
~
"...at every moment in our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and one foot in the abyss..."
"...endings are always more difficult than beginnings..."
-Eleven Minutes, Paulo Coelho
~
"Hey there... I'm here. Perhaps you didn't see me sitting here and quietly improving my mind."
-Love and Marriage, Bill Cosby
~
"... a sort of literary [whiz-]woman, completely obsessed with books."
-Bridget Jones' Diary, Helen Fielding
~
"I may read at a ninth-grade level, but I sure can be dumb sometimes... There is such a thing as knowing too much."
-Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Fannie Flagg
~
"Nothing chased away nightmares faster than the rustle of printed paper."
"...and looked at her with the usual absent expression he wore when she interrupted his reading. It always took him a few moments to find his way out of that other world, the labyrinth of printed letters."
"Some books should be tasted
some devoured,
but only a few
should be chewed and thoroughly digested."
-Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
~
" 'Get me some books,' she answered.
'I need all the books I can carry. I need some books like the victim of the plague.'
They loaded her up with books to read, thinking she was suffering from fame. "- Anna, Part I
" I've fallen in love with writers through their work...This only works for writers when they are singing the song the muse gave them. I don't sing it all the time... but sometimes I do. Sometimes I trust myself enough to 'know the truth and to be able to tell the truth past all the things which pass for facts.' " - The Statue of Aphrodite
"I'm dreaming the things I'm reading. They put literature in a new light. The artist intuits what the mind knows and the mind knows everything, doesn't it? Past, present, and forevermore."- You Must Change Your Life
-Elllen Gilchrist: Collected Stories
~
"She knew there were depths to Jay, but for some reason he remained sealed off to her, neatly deflecting any attempt at intimacy. Her only point of entry to that secret place was through his books. Through his book."
"He was a great advocate of keeping fiction in its place."
"Jackapple Joe was only the beginning, she told him. The first part of a long journey. A man who could write the way he did could never give up. One day, she said, and he would write a wonderful book, a book which would touch lives...
'If that's what you think,' he told her, grinning over his glass of wine, 'then you'll be disappointed. I don't want to touch lives, or be touched by them. I've had my chance at that.'
She looked at his appraisingly.
'I don't think anyone really runs out of chances. They just close their minds to them.' "
"As if the worlds for which he reached through his books might have a real counterpart, a place where magic and chemistry, fiction and flesh could be brought together."
"In a novel or short story, even the dullest and coldest of characters, he told his writing class, 'may be humanized by giving him someone to care for. A child, a lover- even in a pinch, a dog.' "
" 'Where's the magic?' he asked. 'That's what I want to know. Where are the magic carpets and Haitian voodoo and lone gunslingers and naked ladies tied to railway lines? Where are the Indian trackers and four-armed goddesses and the pirates and the giant apes? Where are the fukcing space aliens?' "
"No wonder everyone loved that books. It was the very triumph of deceit, of whimsy over reality, the childhood we all secretly believe we had, but which none of us ever did... the worst kind of lie; half-true, but lying in what really matters. Lying in the heart."
"It was an old story- not even an original story- and yet it drew him. The feeling- that sense of being yanked forward by an invisible hand in his gut- was not entirely unpleasant."
"But still the respect for books was immense."
"He considered for a moment what to do next. Even though he felt sure he'd done the right thing, he knew that in the real world- as opposed to in stories- that didn't always guarantee a happy ending."
-Blackberry Wine, Joanne Harris
~
"My mother never bothers to pull out the dead flowers, so half the spring and summer the yard looks wonderful and the other half it looks terrible, but my mother says that it's all a question of how you want to spend your time and she likes to spend hers reading."
-Everything on a Waffle, Polly Horvath
~
"After reading the books his father had read, David hopes to have a better understanding of him and his philosophy of life."
-The Adventures of Blue Avenger, Norma Howe
~
"... there is a book about everything if you only know where to look."
-Which Witch, Eva Ibbotson
~
" 'There goes Migs with her happy endings again,' Chris said. But I don't care. I like happy endings. And I asked Chris why something would be truer just because it's unhappy. He couldn't answer."
"It will be terrible. Oh, heavens, how I wish I'd write in a happy ending this moment. But it isn't, it's real, and it goes on and on."
"But it's no good thinking happy endings just happen."
-Black Maria, Diana Wynne Jones
"What does Master wish me to fetch?"
"Just books," said Boy. "I need to learn. I'm still so ignorant."
-What the Cat told Me, Minor Arcana by Diana Wynne Jones
~
"We want to find out what happens next, don't we?"
-Be Cool, Elmore Leonard
~
"Chili said 'You don't know how it ends? Take a look.'
'I don't cheat, look at the end when I read something.' "
" 'I want that book,' Michael said."
"Chili didn't say anything, giving it some thought. Fucking endings, man, they weren't as easy as they looked."
-Get Shorty, Elmore Leonard
"But what am I to do? I must have some drug, and reading isn't a strong enough drug now."
-A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis
~
"Wear the old coat and buy the new book."
-Austin Phelps
~
"Such things may be imagined, but words have no power to impress the mind with the exquisite horror of their reality."
-"The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym," Edgar Allan Poe
~
"He loved to hear stories. It was almost as much fun as eavesdropping- if the story was true."
-The Cricket in Times Square, George Selden
~
"She was rarely without a book tucked under her arm or stuffed into her handbag... The old childhood habit stayed with her right through college and into her working years. Each story still cast a spell on her, sent Emma soaring through history and countries, fighting wars and falling in love."
" 'Ever heard of the library?' He smiled.
'I like to own the books I read.'"
-Night of Many Dreams, Gail Tsukiyama
~
"Those who don't read good books have no advantage over those who can't"
-Mark Twain
~
"...and spend my days surrounded by wise books, bright windows in this life of ours lit by the shining souls of men."
-The Island of Dr. Moreau, H.G. Wells
~
"How am I going to get them all home? I ask myself.
I consider ringing Marv for a lift, but I manage on my own. I drop some along the way, rest a few times, but in the end, each book makes it home.
My arms are killing me.
I didn't know words could be so heavy."
"I look over at the small book mountains I've built. it's demoralizing, to say the least. How am I ever going to find what I need among those thousands of pages?"
"The clues must be in the books, so now I shove the other ones to the side and focus on the three finalists. I feel kind of sorry for the ditched ones, to be honest. They look like the losers of a dramatic, tumultuous race, sitting on the floor. If they were people, they'd each have their head in their hands."
-I am the Messenger, Markus Zusak
~
*
So.
I LOVE books. Don't you?
:D
But I also like music (Eclectica, anything goes! J-Pop, J-Rock, alternative rock, pop, Christian rock, RnB, etc), videogames (RPGs like the Final Fantasy series, survival horror like the Fatal Frame series and Resident Evil), Dvds/movies like the Die Hard franchise and romantic comedies), and anime/manga (shoujo, shonen, atbp!).
If you see someone sitting on the floor of a Booksale or Books for Less store, that's probably me. Especially if I walk around the store with a pile of books that I've decided to add to my Never Ending To-Be-Read-Book-List of Doom!
(I just can't enter a book store and leave without buying a book or 2!)
Good day!
^__^ « less
-Hearts in Atlantis, Stephen King
~
*Please send me a note if you want to add me as a friend. I don't mean to be rude, but I just want to know why you want to add me to your friends list. Have a good day, hope you find that book you were looking for! *
:)
"There's always something to occupy the inquiring mind."
-The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
~
"... and it was not very wonderful that Catherine, who had by nature nothing heroic about her, should prefer... at the age of fourteen, to books, or at least books of information, for provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be gained from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she had never any objection to books at all. But from fifteen to seventeen she was in training for a heroine; she read all works as heroines must read to supply their memories with those quotations which are so serviceable and so soothing in the vicissitudes of their eventful lives."
" 'I will read you their names directly; here they are in my pocket-book. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time. '
'...but are they all horrid? Are you sure they are all horrid?'
'Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss Andrews, a sweet girl, one of the sweetest creatures in the world, has read every one of them.' "
-Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
~
"He considered his disposition as of the sort which must suffer heavily, uniting very strong feelings with quiet,serious, and retiring manners, and a decided taste for reading and sedentary pursuits."
" 'I am sure Lady Russell would like him. He is just Lady Russell's sort. Give him a book, and he will read all day long.'
'Yes, that he will!' exclaimed Mary tauntingly. 'He will sit poring over his book, and not know when a person speaks to him, or when one
drops ones' scissors, or anything that happens.' "
-Persuasion, Jane Austen
~
"And books! ...she would buy them all over and over again; she would buy up every copy, I believe, to prevent their falling into unworthy hands; and she would have every book that tells her how to admire an old twisted tree. "
-Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
~
"Yet it seemed to Bega that if she could continue to read, which had come so easily to her... then that would be a life which take every ounce of her strength. She wanted no less. She loved to see the shapes and strokes of line and turn them into words: she loved the idea of battling against enemies external and internal and all her will being consumed in that battle."
"I had never felt so rich as when I was allowed to be alone in that library, reading..."
"It is impossible to get enough books, don't you find? But where are we without them? Just words on the wind... Not words on the mind."
"...who had heard him tell the story many times, but knew that he needed to repeat it to lessen the pain of it..."
-Credo, Melvynn Bragg
~
"... the word book acted as a transient stimulus..."
"I too, liked reading, though of a frivolous and childish kind. I could not digest or comprehend the serious or substantial."
"... I seldom put, and never keep things in order; I am careless; I forget rules; I read when I should learn my lessons; I have no method: and sometimes I say, like you, I cannot bear to be subjected to systematic arrangements."
" 'Have you read much?'
'Only such books as came my way; and they have not been numerous, or very learned.' "
-Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
~
"Douglas knows about stuff like this because all he ever does is read, and sometimes he reads actual books, as opposed to comic books."
-Missing: When Lightning Strikes, Meg Cabot a.k.a. Jenny Carroll
~
"Douglas has more books- and comic books- than anyone I know. Still, if you wanted to borrow one, and took it down off the shelf and forgot to mention it to him, Douglas would notice right away it was missing, even though there are maybe a thousand other ones that look exactly like it right on the shelf beside it. Douglas is one of those books people."
-Missing: Sanctuary, Meg Cabot a.k.a. Jenny Carroll
~
" We stayed up really late reading Tina's teenage love novels... But then Tina said even though she loves reading those books, she never takes them as a guide to real life. Because how many times in life does anybody ever get amnesia? And when do cute young European terrorists ever take anybody hostage in the girl's locker room? And if they did, wouldn't be on the day when you're wearing your worst underwear, the kind with the holes and loose elastic, and a bra that doesn't match, and not a pink silk camisole and tap pants, like the heroine of that particular book?
She has a point."
-The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
~
" 'Here, for you to read. I believe it will adequately illustrate my point.'
Grandmere had drawn out a book from her Gucci bag and handed it to me. I looked down at it incredulously.
'Jane Eyre?' I couldn't believe it.
'Grandmere, I saw the movie. And no offense, but it was way boring.'
'Movie,' Grandmere said with a sniff. 'Read that book, Amelia, and see if it doesn't teach you a thing or two about how men and women relate to one another.' "
"Tina, after reading the list, admitted tearfully that we were right, that romantic heroines from literature really were her friends, and that she could not, in good conscience, forsake them."
-The Princess Diaries IV, Princess in Waiting, Meg Cabot
~
"Argh! Mysteries are okay in books, but in real life, they kind of suck."
" 'But Mia, you're pure and good of heart,' Boris pointed out to me. 'People who are pure and good of heart always beat out evil.'
Um, yeah. In books like The Lord of The Rings, for crying out loud."
"But whatever! Belle and I have a LOT in common: We both always have our head in a book... and everyone thinks we're weird."
" 'Maybe things like the lottery and television were invented to sell products, bilk workers of their hard-earned cash, and lull us into a false sense of complacency, and distract us from the true horrors of the world around us. But maybe we NEED those distractions, so that during our leisure time we can enjoy ourselves.' I went on. 'Is there something wrong with, after our work is done, hanging out... Or singing karaoke? Or reading comic books? Does something have to be complicated and hard to understand to be culture? A hundred years from now, after we're all dead from the Yellowstone caldera, or the ice caps melting, or no more petroleum, or killer algae taking over the planet, when whatever remains of human civilization looks back at early twenty-first society, what do you think is going to better describe what our lives were really like- an essay on the ways the media exploit us, or a single episode of Sailor Moon?' I'm sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, give me anime or give me death.' "
-The Princess Diaries VI, Princess in Training - Meg Cabot
~
"I didn't want to write what I wrote next. Really. It HURT me to say it.But someone HAD to. Because Tina just can't live in Tinaland for the rest of her life. She just can't.
Tina. Those are books.
But Tina wasn't backing down.
Your Precious Gift is a BOOK. How come it's right and not the sheik books?"
-The Princess Diaries VIII, After Eight-Meg Cabot
~
"Mia- what is that you're reading?
It's noting,Tina. Just a journal belonging to one of my ancestresses.
Does it have a hot romance in it?
Um... not really. It's actually kind of boring... She, along with everybody in the palace, dies of the plague at the end.
That doesn't sound like your kind of read at all.
Yeah, I know. I don't know what's come over me lately."
-The Princess Diaries IX, Princess Mia-Meg Cabot
~
"Tina is the person who introduced me to romance novels, who got me to appreciate them and realize how fabulously cool they are, not just as an introduction into the publishing world (although more of them are published than any other genre, so your chances of getting published are statistically higher if you write a romance novel, as opposed to, say, a science fiction novel), but because they're the perfect story. You have a strong female protagonist, a compelling male lead, a conflict that keeps them apart, and then, after a lot of nail-baiting, a satisfying conclusion... the ultimate happy ending.
Why would anyone want to write anything else, really?"
"... one small historical novel isn't going to change the world. But it would be lovely if it made a few people as happy reading it as it made me while writing it."
"...like something out of a book- something that's just not going to happen.
Ever."
"...everyone laughs at romance writers (until they actually read a romance)."
"And well, I love romance novels... they're so satisfying , and proven to be stress relievers..."
"Life isn't a romance novel. The truth is, the reason romance novels sell well- the reason why everyone loves them- is because no one's life is actually like that. Everyone wants their life to be like that.
But no one's life really is."
- The Princess Diaries X, Forever Princess- Meg Cabot
~
"...at every moment in our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and one foot in the abyss..."
"...endings are always more difficult than beginnings..."
-Eleven Minutes, Paulo Coelho
~
"Hey there... I'm here. Perhaps you didn't see me sitting here and quietly improving my mind."
-Love and Marriage, Bill Cosby
~
"... a sort of literary [whiz-]woman, completely obsessed with books."
-Bridget Jones' Diary, Helen Fielding
~
"I may read at a ninth-grade level, but I sure can be dumb sometimes... There is such a thing as knowing too much."
-Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Fannie Flagg
~
"Nothing chased away nightmares faster than the rustle of printed paper."
"...and looked at her with the usual absent expression he wore when she interrupted his reading. It always took him a few moments to find his way out of that other world, the labyrinth of printed letters."
"Some books should be tasted
some devoured,
but only a few
should be chewed and thoroughly digested."
-Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
~
" 'Get me some books,' she answered.
'I need all the books I can carry. I need some books like the victim of the plague.'
They loaded her up with books to read, thinking she was suffering from fame. "- Anna, Part I
" I've fallen in love with writers through their work...This only works for writers when they are singing the song the muse gave them. I don't sing it all the time... but sometimes I do. Sometimes I trust myself enough to 'know the truth and to be able to tell the truth past all the things which pass for facts.' " - The Statue of Aphrodite
"I'm dreaming the things I'm reading. They put literature in a new light. The artist intuits what the mind knows and the mind knows everything, doesn't it? Past, present, and forevermore."- You Must Change Your Life
-Elllen Gilchrist: Collected Stories
~
"She knew there were depths to Jay, but for some reason he remained sealed off to her, neatly deflecting any attempt at intimacy. Her only point of entry to that secret place was through his books. Through his book."
"He was a great advocate of keeping fiction in its place."
"Jackapple Joe was only the beginning, she told him. The first part of a long journey. A man who could write the way he did could never give up. One day, she said, and he would write a wonderful book, a book which would touch lives...
'If that's what you think,' he told her, grinning over his glass of wine, 'then you'll be disappointed. I don't want to touch lives, or be touched by them. I've had my chance at that.'
She looked at his appraisingly.
'I don't think anyone really runs out of chances. They just close their minds to them.' "
"As if the worlds for which he reached through his books might have a real counterpart, a place where magic and chemistry, fiction and flesh could be brought together."
"In a novel or short story, even the dullest and coldest of characters, he told his writing class, 'may be humanized by giving him someone to care for. A child, a lover- even in a pinch, a dog.' "
" 'Where's the magic?' he asked. 'That's what I want to know. Where are the magic carpets and Haitian voodoo and lone gunslingers and naked ladies tied to railway lines? Where are the Indian trackers and four-armed goddesses and the pirates and the giant apes? Where are the fukcing space aliens?' "
"No wonder everyone loved that books. It was the very triumph of deceit, of whimsy over reality, the childhood we all secretly believe we had, but which none of us ever did... the worst kind of lie; half-true, but lying in what really matters. Lying in the heart."
"It was an old story- not even an original story- and yet it drew him. The feeling- that sense of being yanked forward by an invisible hand in his gut- was not entirely unpleasant."
"But still the respect for books was immense."
"He considered for a moment what to do next. Even though he felt sure he'd done the right thing, he knew that in the real world- as opposed to in stories- that didn't always guarantee a happy ending."
-Blackberry Wine, Joanne Harris
~
"My mother never bothers to pull out the dead flowers, so half the spring and summer the yard looks wonderful and the other half it looks terrible, but my mother says that it's all a question of how you want to spend your time and she likes to spend hers reading."
-Everything on a Waffle, Polly Horvath
~
"After reading the books his father had read, David hopes to have a better understanding of him and his philosophy of life."
-The Adventures of Blue Avenger, Norma Howe
~
"... there is a book about everything if you only know where to look."
-Which Witch, Eva Ibbotson
~
" 'There goes Migs with her happy endings again,' Chris said. But I don't care. I like happy endings. And I asked Chris why something would be truer just because it's unhappy. He couldn't answer."
"It will be terrible. Oh, heavens, how I wish I'd write in a happy ending this moment. But it isn't, it's real, and it goes on and on."
"But it's no good thinking happy endings just happen."
-Black Maria, Diana Wynne Jones
"What does Master wish me to fetch?"
"Just books," said Boy. "I need to learn. I'm still so ignorant."
-What the Cat told Me, Minor Arcana by Diana Wynne Jones
~
"We want to find out what happens next, don't we?"
-Be Cool, Elmore Leonard
~
"Chili said 'You don't know how it ends? Take a look.'
'I don't cheat, look at the end when I read something.' "
" 'I want that book,' Michael said."
"Chili didn't say anything, giving it some thought. Fucking endings, man, they weren't as easy as they looked."
-Get Shorty, Elmore Leonard
"But what am I to do? I must have some drug, and reading isn't a strong enough drug now."
-A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis
~
"Wear the old coat and buy the new book."
-Austin Phelps
~
"Such things may be imagined, but words have no power to impress the mind with the exquisite horror of their reality."
-"The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym," Edgar Allan Poe
~
"He loved to hear stories. It was almost as much fun as eavesdropping- if the story was true."
-The Cricket in Times Square, George Selden
~
"She was rarely without a book tucked under her arm or stuffed into her handbag... The old childhood habit stayed with her right through college and into her working years. Each story still cast a spell on her, sent Emma soaring through history and countries, fighting wars and falling in love."
" 'Ever heard of the library?' He smiled.
'I like to own the books I read.'"
-Night of Many Dreams, Gail Tsukiyama
~
"Those who don't read good books have no advantage over those who can't"
-Mark Twain
~
"...and spend my days surrounded by wise books, bright windows in this life of ours lit by the shining souls of men."
-The Island of Dr. Moreau, H.G. Wells
~
"How am I going to get them all home? I ask myself.
I consider ringing Marv for a lift, but I manage on my own. I drop some along the way, rest a few times, but in the end, each book makes it home.
My arms are killing me.
I didn't know words could be so heavy."
"I look over at the small book mountains I've built. it's demoralizing, to say the least. How am I ever going to find what I need among those thousands of pages?"
"The clues must be in the books, so now I shove the other ones to the side and focus on the three finalists. I feel kind of sorry for the ditched ones, to be honest. They look like the losers of a dramatic, tumultuous race, sitting on the floor. If they were people, they'd each have their head in their hands."
-I am the Messenger, Markus Zusak
~
*
So.
I LOVE books. Don't you?
:D
But I also like music (Eclectica, anything goes! J-Pop, J-Rock, alternative rock, pop, Christian rock, RnB, etc), videogames (RPGs like the Final Fantasy series, survival horror like the Fatal Frame series and Resident Evil), Dvds/movies like the Die Hard franchise and romantic comedies), and anime/manga (shoujo, shonen, atbp!).
If you see someone sitting on the floor of a Booksale or Books for Less store, that's probably me. Especially if I walk around the store with a pile of books that I've decided to add to my Never Ending To-Be-Read-Book-List of Doom!
(I just can't enter a book store and leave without buying a book or 2!)
Good day!
^__^ « less
- Quezon City, Philippines
- member since January 8 2008
