Being that I've only had this blog for about 4 months or so, my book reviews are limited to the books I've read since then. Oh small percentage of my loves! But lucky for us all, I've always kept a book journal, in which I write down some of my favorite quotes from favorite reads. So please join me on my walk down memory lane (to be continued because there are too many to share in one day)...
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer(Not the greatest read, but some very interesting and disturbing religious discussions, centered around the crazy Mormons! Can't get enough of these nuts! If you're at all curious about the bunk dogma that polygamists use to justify their freaky lifestyles, I recommend you suffer through this Krakauer.)
"My own view of religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. I cannot, however, deny that it has made some contributions to civilization. It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and it caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they became able to predict them. These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others." ~Krakauer quoting Bertrant Russell.
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez(This is absolute must y'all. There are so many brilliant lines from this book that my journal runneth over.)
"But if they had learned anything together, it was that wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good."
"Dr. Urbino caught the parrot around the neck with a triumphant sigh: ca y est. But he released him immediately because the ladder slipped from under his feet and for an instant he was suspended in air and then he realized that he had died without Communion, without time to repent of anything or to say goodbye to anyone, at seven minutes after four on Pentecost Sunday."
"He did not live to see his own glory. When he recognized himself the irreversible symptoms that he had seen and pitied in others, he did not even attempt a useless struggle but withdrew from the world so as not to infect anyone else. Locked in a utility room at Misericordia Hospital, deaf to the calls of his colleagues and the pleas of his family, removed from the horror of the plague victims dying on the floor in the packed corridors, he wrote a letter of feverish love to his wife and children, a letter of gratitude for his existence in which he revealed how much and with how much fervor he had loved life. It was a farewell of twenty heartrending pages in which the progress of the disease could be observed in the deteriorating script, and it was not necessary to know the writer to realize that he had signed his name with his last breath. In accordance with his instructions, his ashen body was mingled with others in the communal cemetery and was not seen by anyone who loved him."
Love a good tragedy! More fabulous literary moments to come. Have a lovely weekend all- happy reading and sipping and swirling! xo
I was very stirred up by Under the Banner....it was fascinating and disturbing AND I really want to read The Book of Mormon for myself now.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the movie of Love in the Time of Cholera, but haven't had the chance to read it yet. I'd heard mixed reviews about it, but I trust your opinion, obvs! On the list it goes!
PS. I finished The Incident with the Dog in the Night-time and while it fizzled a bit in the end (classic, the author is tired so let's finish it here) it was such a fun read! quick too...you could do it on the bolt bus! haha. See you soon(ish)!