About stories of all kinds
Dying was nothing and he had no picture of it nor fear of it in his mind. But living was a field of grain blowing in the wind on the side of a hill. Living was a hawk in the sky. Living was an earthen jar of water in the dust of the threshing with… Continue reading ‘Blowing in the wind’
We are all, even the best of us, egotists and self-deceivers, and without a little comfortable make-believe to clothe us we should freeze in the outer winds. Richard Hannay in The Three Hostages The Three Hostages by John Buchan, Starbooks Classics, 2013, ebook. This reminds me of the Emperor’s new clothes. While usually the Emperor… Continue reading ‘Even the best of us’
Have you lived always with your heart and half your mind far away?The Children of Húrin The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien Apparently at least half my mind is far away on the regular, but it came back this evening to remind me to post this, quite literally at the eleventh hour. It’s not… Continue reading ‘Have you lived always’
Carved into wood, lettering whimsical and loopy, pine trees accenting the bottom, the piece reads: Even the smallest person can change the course of the future. J.R.R. Tolkien Never have I been so annoyed by a sign that I like in all my life. Aesthetically: beautiful. Quotationally: love quotes. Authorially: big fan of Tolkien. The… Continue reading Cite Your Sources: Because Some Who Wander ARE Lost
Wamba the Fool is pretty much my favourite character in Ivanhoe. He just gets to put everyone else and their idiocy on blast with complete immunity himself.
Miss Susan. What is algebra exactly; is it those three cornered things?Phoebe. It is x minus y equals z plus y and things like that. And all the time you are saying they are equal, you feel in your heart, why should they be. Quality Street by J. M. Barrie Quality Street, Act II, by… Continue reading ‘Why should they be?’
Therefore, if we built splendid castles... and pictured beautiful scenes, among the fervid coals of the hearth round which we were clustering, and if all went to rack with the crumbling embers, and have never since arisen out of the ashes, let us take to ourselves no shame. In my own behalf, I rejoice that… Continue reading ‘Let us take to ourselves no shame’
For the first time in months he was in reach of a real library, just the kind of scholarly yet miscellaneous library that his restless and impatient spirit craved. He was aware that the books he read... were merely a form of anaesthetic... But they were beginning to produce in him a moral languor that… Continue reading ‘Merely a form of anaesthetic’
One official sent her to another, and the other sent her back again to the first, and so backward and forward; until it appeared to me as if both must have been appointed for their skill in evading their duties, instead of performing them. Bleak House by Charles Dickens Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Collector’s… Continue reading ‘And so backward and forward’
The truth was, he thought that what newspapers and books referred to as ‘the horrors of solitary confinement’ were grossly exaggerated. He would rather have too little company than too much of the wrong sort. Arthur & George by Julian Barnes Arthur & George by Julian Barnes, Vintage Books 2006, p. 211 There are times… Continue reading ‘Too little company’
Fictitiously Yours 