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at about page twenty or so, the magical thing occurred that happens only with the very best books: I became absorbed and obsessed and entered the “Can’t you see I’m reading?”
We didn’t read only “great books,” we read casually and promiscuously and whimsically.
also likes lobsters and a good clambake, as do we all.
everything would be possible,
“Permanent is not; impermanent is not; a self is not; not a self [is not]; clean is not; not clean is not; happy is not; suffering is not.”
One of my cousins and his wife had written to say, in a way they knew would make her smile, that even though they were “heathens,” they were praying for her. Mom loved this. She said to me—and to them—that she suspected heathen prayers were even more effective than Christian or Jewish or Muslim ones—perhaps because heathens prayed less.
One of the many things I love about bound books is their sheer physicality. Electronic books live out of sight and out of mind. But printed books have body, presence.
there is, indeed, an etiquette of illness; that there was no reason I should know it, but also no excuse for not being open to learning
there’s something about planes that isolates and intensifies sadness, the way a looking glass can magnify the sun until it grows unbearably hot and burns.
Lewis went to great lengths to deny that his books were Christian allegory, and that Tolkien, a devout Roman Catholic, insisted that his books were fundamentally religious. To me, Tolkien’s series has always seemed wonderfully and purely pagan.
whether anyone is listening or not.
Nice
every great religion shares a love of books, of reading, of knowledge.
reverence for books is what we all have in common.
It is not by complaining that we have not the right tools, but by using well the tools we have.
how could anyone who loves books not love a book that is itself so in love with books?
I am loving this novel!
“I think it’s much harder for me now to read very silly things when there are so many wonderful things to read and reread. And if the book is too silly, I find that it’s often because the writer doesn’t really have anything to say—or there are no values. Or because the whole book is just a lead-up to a trick at the end.
Of course you could do more—you can always do more, and you should do more—but still, the important thing is to do what you can, whenever you can. You just do your best, and that’s all you can do. Too many people use the excuse that they don’t think they can do enough, so they decide they don’t have to do anything. There’s never a good excuse for not doing anything—even if it’s just to sign something, or send a small contribution, or invite a newly settled refugee family over for Thanksgiving.”
there’s something you can always tell people who want to learn more about the world and who don’t know how to find a cause to support. You can always tell them to read.”
This book is wonderful!
Most people deserve an endless number of chances.”
She never wavered in her conviction that 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. Mom taught me that you can make a difference in the world and that books really do matter: they’re how we know what we need to do in life, and how we tell others.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
