"

‘How humiliating,’ he says finally. ‘Such high hopes, and to end like this.’

‘Yes, I agree, it is humiliating. But perhaps that is a good point to start from again. Perhaps that is what I must learn to accept. To start at ground level. With nothing. Not with nothing but. With nothing. No cards, no weapons, no property, no rights, no dignity.’

‘Like a dog.’

‘Yes, like a dog.’

"

J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace

"He also discovered that he was bitter and full of resentment, that he oozed resentment, and that he might easily kill someone, anyone, if it would provide a respite from the loneliness and rain and cold of Madrid, but this was a discovery that he preferred to conceal."

Roberto Bolano’s 2666

So I had taken a very long extended break from this tumblr, from reading for pleasure at all, due to being ridiculously busy with school. This book is a good one to tackle after that self-imposed book reading hiatus. It’s massive, almost 900 pages. I’ve only just started, but I’m already so intrigued. Bolano’s style of writing is lovely. He tells you enough about the characters to get a grasp on them within 2 paragraphs by using sentences like the one I’ve posted above. It’s fascinating and wonderful to read and I look forward to reading further!

King on the Creative Process, the State of Fiction, and More

James Parker:	Are the ideas, or the suggestions, still coming at the same pace?
Stephen King:	No. I don't think so. And in a way that's a relief.
JP:	I was going to ask that.
SK:	In the old days, it would seem like ideas were crammed in like people in an elevator. And my head was sometimes a very noisy place to be. The other thing that happens with that is, say you're working on something and it's going along pretty well, and two or three ideas occur, and they're all yelling "You should write this! You should write this!" It's almost like being married and all of a sudden your life is full of beautiful women. You have to stay faithful to what you're working on. But it can be uncomfortable.
JP:	So do you keep them in a different file, or ...?
SK:	No. I never write ideas down. Because all you do when you write ideas down is kind of immortalize something that should go away. If they're bad ideas, they go away on their own.
JP:	So this awful thing of the writer who goes, "Oh, I had a great idea but I forgot it!" -- you don't really subscribe to that.
SK:	No. Because that wasn't a great idea. If you can't remember it, it was a terrible idea.

Herman Wouk Is Still Alive →

Short story by Stephen King published in the May 2011 issue of The Atlantic

Yes, the one who can’t write reviews but still posts is at it again. The link will lead you to a short story by Stephen King. Reason why I link to this is that from the twelve books I’ve read so far this year only one is not by King. So yeah. Worst even; I’m starting to develop a ~theory~ about his work. Oh deary me. This cannot end well.

Either way; this one is on me. Enjoy!

View high resolution

Hi. I’m the one who is actually not really that far behind on her planning with reading 50 books this year (this is book 12), but it would turn out I’m awful at reviewing the darn things.

Going to try to improve, honest, but I wanted to point out the book I’m currently reading.

Why?

1. It really is rather beautifully written
2. It’s about a young man who calls himself “a poet” and who writes poetry (surprise surprise) and I figured it was kinda fitting since April is National Poetry Month

There is only really one problem here: I cannot post any quotes/poems on here, since I’m reading the Dutch translation and it would appear that there aren’t many quotes found on the internet.

Are the poems any good? Well. I like them. But I’m not very into poetry in general so what do I know, really? The book itself is beautiful though. It talks about the life of Itsik Malpesj, a Jew born in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, who has to fled his village to avoid being forced to join the Russian army. Later he’s smuggled to New York in a trunk, where he truly becomes a Yiddish poet. The novel is not only about the past, entangled into it is the story of the translator of Malpesj’ autobiography: a young man in Boston who struggles with his own religion and life. This is how for I am right now, but I’m very enthusiastic about it.

"Our belief is that the human capacity for sex and love and intimacy is far greater than most people think—possibly infinite—and that having a lot of satisfying connections simply makes it possible for you to have a lot more."

Dossie Easton and Catherine Liszt, The Ethical Slut, found in The Threesome Handbook by Vicki Vantoch

"Would you prefer for somebody else’s son to die in the mud? You want us to win the war, but you apparently don’t want to have your sons involved in the actual bloodshed. That’s a strangely contradictory attitude. Somebody has to get in and kill the enemy. Somebody has to be in the infantry and the paratroopers. If the country all had your attitude, nobody would fight, everybody would in the Quartermaster. And what kind of country would that be?"

David Kenyon Webster, in a letter to his mother; from Parachute Infantry

This book is truly fantastic. I read about 75% of it when I was on a plane from Athens to Newark. It was very hard to put down. Baxter writes here a perfect meditation on love and its various conditions and complications; several reviews have called it an “exploration of the magical, mysterious and sometimes painful incarnations of love.” There is nothing more accurate.

Love is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately; falling in love with someone, I suppose, does that to you. Reading this book made manifest so many of the feelings I was having, and put them out in words so that I could articulate what was going on in my life.

"Tightrope hanging, as we reached for each other’s hearts. You don’t know that you’ve crossed a border until you’re over on the other side. At that point you see where you’ve got yourself to and whether you’re done for or not. Plenty of friendships have a latent erotic component…it was scary. But it was uplifting too. That’s what you have to know."

Charles Baxter, Feast of Love

"When you’re in love you don’t have to do a damn thing. You can just be. You can just stay quiet in the world. You don’t have to move an inch."

Charles Baxter, Feast of Love