Talking about our problems is our greatest addiction. Break the habit. Talk about your joys.
Rita Schiano (via stoneyxochi)
Books can take you anywhere

Books can take you anywhere

A joker is a little fool who is different from everyone else. He’s not a club, diamond, heart, or spade. He’s not an eight or a nine, a king or a jack. He is an outsider. He is placed in the same pack as the other cards, but he doesn’t belong there. Therefore, he can be removed without anybody missing him.
Jostein Gaarder; The Solitaire Mystery
readmyworldyo: A good reader always has two things: 1) a hot beverage and 2) a thick book Well, let’s don’t rule out a nice glass of red wine.

readmyworldyo:

A good reader always has two things:

1) a hot beverage and 2) a thick book

Well, let’s don’t rule out a nice glass of red wine.

Saw this in our store yesterday. It looked too good to pass up.

Saw this in our store yesterday. It looked too good to pass up.

Eventually, I’m afraid, bookstores will no longer exist. That will be the end of the world as we know it.

unypl:

UNYPL in 2012: The Walkers

It’s a unique moment when I come across the walking readers. I see them suddenly, and then there are just a few strides left to take the picture candidly. Most of the time I catch up with them after they’ve already passed me by, to find out what they’re reading. Here they are from the past year, the walkers of the Underground Library: 

  1. “A Clash of Kings,” by George R.R. Martin 
  2. “Devil’s Gate,” by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown
  3. “The Casual Vacancy,” by J. K. Rowling
  4. “Mary, Mary,” by James Patterson
  5. “Madame Bovary,” by Gustave Flaubert
  6. “The Summer Book,” by Tove Jansson
  7. “The Mother-Daughter Book Club,” by Heather Vogel Frederick
  8. “Savor the Moment,” by Nora Roberts 
  9. “Playing for Pizza”, by John Grisham
  10. “The Proposal,” by Mary Balogh 

This is cool.

This is pretty much the look on my face as I work my shift at B&N and listen to the customer’s conversations and questions. Not just during the holiday season. Nope. Year ‘round.

This is pretty much the look on my face as I work my shift at B&N and listen to the customer’s conversations and questions. Not just during the holiday season. Nope. Year ‘round.

An introvert may feel asocial when pressured to go to a party that doesn’t interest her. But for her, the event does not promise meaningful interaction. In fact, she knows that the party will leave her feeling more alone and alienated. Her social preference may be to stay home and reflect on a conversation with a friend, call that friend, and come to an understanding that is meaningful to her. Or she might indulge in the words of a favorite author, feeling a deep connection with a person she has never met. From the perspective of a partygoer, this introvert may appear to be asocial, when, in fact, the introvert is interacting in a much different way.
Laurie Helgoe, Introvert Power (via simply-quotes)

simply-quotes

The sign says it all

The sign says it all

chapelkill

little-dauphine: Handwritten last stanza of The Raven, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.

little-dauphine:

Handwritten last stanza of The Raven, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.

research.hrc.utexas.edu

But there are forces that don’t let you turn back and undo things, because to do so would be to deny what is already in motion, to unwrite and erase passages, to shorten the arc of a story you don’t own.
Salvador Plascencia (The People of Paper)
‘The Hobbit’ illustrated by Maurice Sendak? The 1960s masterpiece that could have been. Maurice Sendak’s “The Hobbit,” in pen and ink, 1967 (Credit: Maurice Sendak/Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University) As I eagerly await Peter Jackson’s return to Tolkien with his adaptation of “The Hobbit,” I can’t help but wonder what the film would have become had Guillermo del Toro remained in the director’s chair. Though the story of Bilbo Baggins takes place in a more halcyon Middle-earth than the later “The Lord of the Rings” books, there are pockets of darkness that foretell what is to come. I’ve observed a gravitational pull toward the dark in film adaptations of books primarily published for children, especially in Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” and in the latest installment of Harry Potter. Traditional fairy tales abound with dark themes and places for the hero to adventure, and rightly so — the world can be a dark place. This author cannot think of any better way to broach these notions and address these fears with his daughter than through a story, and “The Hobbit” sits in perfect company with these types of fairy tales.

‘The Hobbit’ illustrated by Maurice Sendak? The 1960s masterpiece that could have been.

Maurice Sendak’s “The Hobbit,” in pen and ink, 1967 (Credit: Maurice Sendak/Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University)

As I eagerly await Peter Jackson’s return to Tolkien with his adaptation of “The Hobbit,” I can’t help but wonder what the film would have become had Guillermo del Toro remained in the director’s chair. Though the story of Bilbo Baggins takes place in a more halcyon Middle-earth than the later “The Lord of the Rings” books, there are pockets of darkness that foretell what is to come.

I’ve observed a gravitational pull toward the dark in film adaptations of books primarily published for children, especially in Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” and in the latest installment of Harry Potter. Traditional fairy tales abound with dark themes and places for the hero to adventure, and rightly so — the world can be a dark place. This author cannot think of any better way to broach these notions and address these fears with his daughter than through a story, and “The Hobbit” sits in perfect company with these types of fairy tales.

politicsprose: Politics & Prose 2012 Nonfiction Favorite:Joseph Anton: A Memoir by Salman Rushdie Joseph Anton: A Memoir (Random House, $30) is Salman Rushdie’s extraordinary tale of his life before and during the nine years he lived under threat of death after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 urging Muslims worldwide to kill Rushdie over his authorship of The Satanic Verses. While much of the story reads like a thriller (secret hideaways, clandestine meetings, close calls), it is also a profound and cautionary tale about the inviolability of freedom of expression. There are many heroes and villains in Rushdie’s story—he pulls no punches in excoriating those willing to sacrifice principle for self-interest—and plenty of juicy tidbits about famous literary figures, politicians, and other notable celebrities. Perhaps most touching is how he copes as a father during weeks and months of separation from his young son. This book looks good.

politicsprose:

Politics & Prose 2012 Nonfiction Favorite:
Joseph Anton: A Memoir by Salman Rushdie

Joseph Anton: A Memoir (Random House, $30) is Salman Rushdie’s extraordinary tale of his life before and during the nine years he lived under threat of death after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 urging Muslims worldwide to kill Rushdie over his authorship of The Satanic Verses. While much of the story reads like a thriller (secret hideaways, clandestine meetings, close calls), it is also a profound and cautionary tale about the inviolability of freedom of expression. There are many heroes and villains in Rushdie’s story—he pulls no punches in excoriating those willing to sacrifice principle for self-interest—and plenty of juicy tidbits about famous literary figures, politicians, and other notable celebrities. Perhaps most touching is how he copes as a father during weeks and months of separation from his young son.

This book looks good.

Eventually the backs of the middle-class will break, the economy will collapse, the wealthy will lose tremendous amounts, and the balance of power and wealth will shift dramatically. The world as we know it will change, and those at the bottom will will have nothing left to eat except those at the top.
TBV; Conversations from the Front Lines