The good thing about living a solitary life is that I can freely devote most of my spare time to reading. Though I spend lots of time devouring books, I am still far from finishing all of the titles included in my reading list. Twenty-seven percent of the total – that’s how far I am. What’s funny is that my list of “books to read” lengthens faster than my list of “books that have been read.”
Below are the titles and authors of the books that I’ve read for the past two months (May 1 to 29 June). I've also quoted the closing lines of each book for such lines say more about the book’s power and beauty than any description I can give.
- Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Ishmael gave himself to the writing of it, and as he did so he understood this, too: that accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart. - Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
What is it that fills me with extraordinary excitement? It is Clarissa, he said. For there she was. - Paris Trout by Pete Dexler
And she would lie in the dark until morning sometimes, wondering which one of them it was. - The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
And it may be that love sometimes occurs without pain or misery. - Candide by Voltaire
“All that is very well,” answered Candide, “but let us cultivate our garden.” - Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra
And I shall remain satisfied, and proud to have been the first who has ever enjoyed the fruit of his writings as fully as he could desire; for my desire has been no other than to deliver over to the detestation of mankind the false and foolish tales of the books of chivalry, which, thanks to that of my true Don Quixote, are even now tottering, and doubtless doomed to fall for ever. Farewell. - Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
But I shielded it with my hand and it burned again to light me along the dark passage. - My Antonia by Willa Cather
Fortunate country,that is one day to receive hearts like Alexandra's into its bosom, to give them out again in the yellow wheat, in the rustling corn, in the shining eyes of youth! - Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
The children were sleepy, and morning would dawn as early and demanding as always. Time to go inside and cover up the coals and pull in the latch string. - Starting Out in the Evening by Brian Morton
But as she waited, holding her lover’s hand, she found herself thinking that she wouldn’t mind if it never appeared: the night was astonishing already, just as it was. - The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.
9 comments:
Of those you've read, Don Quixote is the only one I truly want to read for myself.
That you've read all the others in such a short span is unusual amongst my circle for certain; but my circle read newspapers and do crosswords!
You are clearly one hell of a voracious reader.
I could go on.
on candide - i love the burning of the heretics. we should have another auto da fe.
Hi Unstranger, it took me a long time to finish Don Quixote. It's the e-book version that I read. I started it last March, then turned to another book, then returned to it, then felt oh-no-this-book-is-just-damn-too-long... then finally finished it this month. :)
I don't get to read real newspapers anymore, only the online versions...
Hey there, Anonymous. We'd be the first ones to be barbecued then? hahah
Candide is a bit like Don Quixote, only way, way shorter. :)
dang! i am only on my fifth book... pwede na isama children's books??? :D anyhow, do advise on light reading that i can enjoy albeit allow for CONSTANT interruptions? :D
it's taking me longer now to finish one book. these days, tv keeps me company...lol. it sounds bad. i know.
May 1 - June 29: I haven't read a single book... sad, I know...
dina, remember when we used to devour those novels in high school? lorrie, hazel, william, rexon, you and I - tayo yung mga laging nakadukdok ang mga mukha sa libro noon diba? :)
kayni, agnes,
it's not at all bad. or sad. sometimes there are more important--and fun--things to do with our time than spend it with books. :)
yeah... ang mga danielle steel, sidney sheldon, at johanna lindsey- kaloka! :D and i remember how you kept your novels sooooo immaculate! those were such good easy time. oh, memories....
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