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There are certain books that I mean to read and keep stacked by my bedside. I even take them on trips. Some of my books should be awarded their own frequent-flier miles, they’ve traveled so much.
this: Reading isn’t the opposite of doing; it’s the opposite of dying.
Maybe I sensed that something was about to happen beyond the control of love, patience, or any of us, and this was my last chance to fix time.
Everything would be all right, everything would be possible, anything could be salvaged or averted, as long as we all kept running around.
As much as she was devoted to intricate planning in daily life, she understood the importance of occasionally following an impulse when it came to big decisions.
Books focused her mind, calmed her, took her outside of herself; television jangled her nerves.
If you stayed at home, you might not get the opportunity to go to that place again. But if you went, you could always come back.
Electronic books live out of sight and out of mind. But printed books have body, presence.
often forget that other people’s stories aren’t simply introductions to my own more engaging, more dramatic, more relevant, and better-told tales, but rather ends in themselves, tales I can learn from or repeat or dissect or savor.
“That’s one of the things books do. They help us talk. But they also give us something we all can talk about when we don’t want to talk about ourselves.”
Mom was always a little amazed at parents who thought their kids should be reading more but who never read themselves.
Mom almost always smiled—but when she was happier than usual she beamed.
I think there’s something reassuring about any family dynamic untouched by changing circumstances.
kindness, not just about being nice. You can be gruff or abrupt and still be kind. Kindness has much more to do with what you do than how you do it.
When one sees something especially wonderful, it’s always nice to have someone to share it with.”
“Hidden away, the people of the streets drift into sleep induced by alcohol or agitated by despair, into dreams that carry them back to the lives that once were theirs.”
“Books are not about passing the time. They’re about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, Sir Kevin, one just wishes one had more of it.
The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something undeferring about literature. Books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not. All readers were equal,
“As long as there is paper, people will write, secretly, in small rooms, in the hidden chambers of their minds, just as people whisper the words they’re forbidden to speak aloud.”
There are all kinds of serendipities in bookstores,
Usually beach reading is better in theory than in practice.
You need to learn to recognize these things right from the start. Evil almost always starts with small cruelties.”
What could be more human than to want to live?
“tells”—verbal and visual clues that display true intention to anyone observant enough to notice them.
opportunity to count your blessings. And gratitude isn’t what you give in exchange for something; it’s what you feel when you are blessed—
getting people to stop using feelings as an excuse for their actions and the other based on getting people to practice gratitude.
“We all owe everyone for everything that happens in our lives. But it’s not owing like a debt to one person—it’s really that we owe everyone for everything. Our whole lives can change in an instant—so each person who keeps that from happening, no matter how small a role they play, is also responsible for all of it. Just by giving friendship and love, you keep the people around you from giving up—and each expression of friendship or love may be the one that makes all the difference.”
But sometimes you just can’t know what’s going to happen, even when you know everything there is to know. So you prepare for the worst but hope for the best.”
the fantasy of imagining a different life for yourself, or your same life lived differently.
know that Mom knows I love her, but I don’t know if she knows I’m proud of her.
You should tell your family every day that you love them. And make sure they know that you’re proud of them too.
Eventually I came to realize that the greatest gift of our book club was that it gave me time and opportunity to ask her things, not tell her things.
Make your bed, every morning—it doesn’t matter if you feel like it, just do it. Write thank-you notes immediately. Unpack your suitcase, even if you’re only somewhere for the night. If you aren’t ten minutes early, you’re late. Be cheerful and listen to people, even if you don’t feel like it. Tell your spouse (children, grandchildren, parents) that you love them every day. Use shelf liner in bureaus. Keep a collection of presents on hand (Mom kept them in a “present drawer”), so that you’ll always have something to give people. Celebrate occasions. Be kind.
books are the most powerful tool in the human arsenal, that reading all kinds of books, in whatever format you choose—electronic (even though that wasn’t for her) or printed, or audio—is the grandest entertainment, and also is how you take part in the human conversation.
books can be how we get closer to each other, and stay close,
