Dannii Elle > Recent Status Updates

Entering all these infamous fairy tales is such fun! I just adore this series!

"'I've seen you two make more mischief in ten minutes than most people could make in a lifetime.'
'Fair,' Oskar said, sounding quite proud."

"This magic is woven into the structure of stories, but extracting it is a violent thing. You have to break a story a little bit, cause a rupture, and then you can siphon off some of that book's magic."

"We all bear scars, Dorian. Mine just happen to be more visible than most."

"What story would you like?”

“How about the story of the idiotic prince who won’t leave the assassin alone?”

"Oh! I love that story! It has such a happy ending, too—why, the assassin was really feigning her illness in order to get the prince’s attention! Who would have guessed it? Such a clever girl. And the bedroom scene is so lovely—it’s worth reading through all of their ceaseless banter!”

"And what's wrong with headstrong girls? she pressed. "Other than the fact that they're not wooden-headed ninnies who can only open their mouths to give orders and gossip?"

"the image haunted his dreams throughout the night: a lovely girl gazing at the stars, and the stars who gazed back."

I am a tiny fraction of the way into this 19 hour audiobook and I am already so sure I am going to love it. Michelle Obama narrates this herself and she has the perfect voice for audio narration.

Chilling!!!

For some reason my edition has over 500 pages, but the longest recorded page count on Goodreads ends at 352 pages. I still have over 200 pages left in this book and am very happy about it!

"I gasped, I staggered. Yet I could hold it back no longer, that admission, that acceptance, those three horrible, long-expected syllables.
'Dracula.'"

"In the castle in which he was held captive, he bore witness to things that would have driven many another man into the arms of madness. Yet did he endure, altered forever, certainly, but resolute and sane. Nonetheless, his ordeal lingers on and the world seems full of means of which he might inadvertently be reminded of it."

"Strange, are they not... the invisible patterns of our lives? And their unseen connections?"

It's 2am and sleep is evading me, so the only logical cure is to dive back in to a mind-bending, genre-defying, mixed media read, right??

This was already messed up, but now it has gotten SERIOUSLY messed up!

"The human mind is fiercely protective of what it believes to be true about the world, especially if those beliefs are unspoken or taken for granted at a deep level...

But your soul knows. Your soul most likely had an inkling long before the events you're struggling to comprehend had even occurred, sensitive as it is to currents and changes too subtle for the conscious mind to observe"

"I realized there were probably drinkers in their twenties now who simply didn't understand why bars had matchbooks. It'd be like having menus in places that never sold food. We live among fossils and rock paintings and ancient signs, wherever we are."

I am so enjoying this one, yet can't seem to explain why I keep putting it down for long intervals!?

"the answers to all our questions and the objects of our quests should most likely be found within our own souls. But they're not. We need more. Someone or something bigger than us. A magical other.
And that's why we reach for the gods.
Or for someone to love."

"Once you're in possession of a fact, you're done. Case closed. Mind closed, too. Unsolvable mysteries expand the mind."
"I don't see how. Truth is what shows us new things."
"But there's never just one truth."

Loving the whole concept but it still feels like we are getting introduced to the story, at this point.

"You are words on paper... Be careful what stories you tell yourself."

"Each of us has our own path, Mister Rawlins. Symbols are for interpretation, not definition."

“Strange, isn’t it? To love a book. When the words on the pages become so precious that they feel like part of your own history because they are. It’s nice to finally have someone read stories I know so intimately.”

"How are you feeling?" Zachary asks.
"Like I'm losing my mind, but in a slow, achingly beautiful sort of way."

This accurately describes the process of reading this book.

"It is easier to be in love in a room with closed doors. To have the whole world in one room. In one person. The universe condensed and intensified and burning, bright and alive and electric.
But doors cannot stay closed forever."

"They have similar elements, though. All stories do, no matter what form they take. Something was, and then something changed. Change is what a story is, after all."

“Everyone wants the stars. Everyone wishes to grasp that which exists out of reach. To hold the extraordinary in their hands and keep the remarkable in their pockets.”

"“Once, very long ago, Time fell in love with Fate....
This, as you might imagine, proved problematic"

"“These doors will sing. Silent siren songs for those who seek what lies behind them.
For those who feel homesick for a place they’ve never been to.
Those who seek even if they do not know what (or where) it is that they are seeking.
Those who seek will find.
Their doors have been waiting for them.”

“upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. Stories written in books and sealed in jars and painted on walls. Odes inscribed onto skin and pressed into rose petals. Tales laid in tiles upon the floors, bits of plot worn away by passing feet. Legends carved in crystal and hung from chandeliers. Stories catalogued and cared for and revered.”