Reading in Reykjavík

"The library opened out of the smoking-room. It had an air of being the most used room in the house, and indeed it was here that Jonathan could generally be found amid a company of books that bore witness to generations of rather freakish taste and to the money by which such taste could be gratified. Jonathan had added lavishly to the collection. His books ranged oddly from translations of Turkish and Persian verse to the works of the most inscrutable of the moderns and text-books on criminology and police detection. He had a magpie taste in reading, but it was steadied by a constancy of devotion to the Elizabethans." From Death and the Dancing Footman by Ngaio Marsh

This conversation between the rigidly-in-control-at-all-times heroine and her friend takes place after the hero has thoroughly kissed the heroine before they actually get together, seriously confusing her: “I was wearing the Back-Off Cloak.” “What?” “I’m not stupid. He made a little move in the kitchen. Actually, he makes little moves every time I run into him, which is disconcerting, but I can handle it. So when I walked him to the door, I thought he might get ideas.” Laurel’s eyes widened. “You swirled on the Back-Off Cloak? The famed shield that repels men of all ages, creeds, and political affiliations?” Yes.” “Yet he was not repelled. He’s immune.” She gave Parker a slap on the arm. “He may be the only creature of his kind.” Nora Roberts, Happy Ever After

„He watched pleasure turn her eyes to blue crystals, tasted her moan as he crushed his mouth to hers.“   Nora Roberts, Savor the Moment . Please tell me what is so sexy about crystals for eyes, even if they are blue? They are cold and hard and while they are pretty to look at, they are hardly sexy. That is an image that belongs more in a horror story than a romance novel."The Girl With the Crystal Eyes", anyone?

A lovely quotation from Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes   by Robert Louis Stevenson: "For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilisation, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints. Alas, as we get up in life, and are more preoccupied with our affairs, even a holiday is a thing that must be worked for. "

Forgotten books, stacked into a sculpture at the Reykjavík city library. "Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered." W.H. Auden (1907 – 1973)

"To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry." Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962)

"Calcutta takes its name from [Kalikata], which in turn was named after the black Hindu goddess Kali. The dreadful Kali is the wife of Shiva, and is portrayed as a bloodthirsty, axe-wielding psychopath, dripping in blood, with the heads of her victims hanging on string around her neck. In normal circumstances the likes of Kali would be taken in for police questioning. But in Calcutta she is revered as the city's patron goddess. The similarly evil appearance of Calcutta must be more than mere coincidence. The forces of Hindu destiny at work again?" Peter Holt, from In Clive's Footsteps , reprinted in Simon Winchester's Calcutta .

T he time to read is any time: no apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is necessary. It is the only art which can be practiced at any hour of the day or night, whenever the time and inclination comes, that is your time for reading; in joy or sorrow, health or illness. George Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948)

The following quotation is probably the source for a particular incident in one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. I love it when I discover the source of some particular nugget of intertextuality. "A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us." W.H. Auden (1907-1973)

Books that have become classics - books that have had their day and now get more praise than perusal - always remind me of retired colonels and majors and captains who, having reached the age limit, find themselves retired on half pay. Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907)

Sunset, taken from my parents' front yard. 3 image HDR merge, tonemapped. "To me, the light of the sun, the day, and life itself, would be joyless and bitter if I had not something to read. " Leo Allatius (1586-1669)

"There is something distinctive about the sight and sound of a human body falling from the rain forest canopy. The breathless scream, the wildly gyrating arms and legs pumping into thin air, the rush of leaves, snapping branches, and the sickening thud, followed by uneasy silence. Listening to that silence, I reflected on how plant collecting can be an unpleasant sort of activity." From Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust and Lunacy , by Eric Hansen. This would make a thrilling start to a novel, but since it's the beginning sentence of a non-fiction book, it's just horrifying. Fortunately we learn that the man survived the fall, but the author takes more than half a page to get to that fact.

All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality -- the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape. Arthur Christopher Benson (1862 – 1925)

...I began to fear it might happen to me as to certain translators, and imitators of Shakespeare; the unities may be preserved, while the spirit is evaporated. Clara Reeve (1729–1807), from The Old English Baron This is indeed a problem for many translators, especially those who translate literature. They manage to render the story faithfully, but lose the spirit of the original.

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore? " Henry Ward Beecher (1813 – 1887)

I came across this funny description of illusions getting shattered in Louisa May Alcott's  Little Women that I want to share: Miss Norton had the entree into most society, which Jo would have had no chance of seeing but for her. The solitary woman felt an interest in the ambitious girl, and kindly conferred many favors of this sort both on Jo and the Professor. She took them with her one night to a select symposium, held in honor of several celebrities. Jo went prepared to bow down and adore the mighty ones whom she had worshiped with youthful enthusiasm afar off. But her reverence for genius received a severe shock that night, and it took her some time to recover from the discovery that the great creatures were only men and women after all. Imagine her dismay, on stealing a glance of timid admiration at the poet whose lines suggested an ethereal being fed on 'spirit, fire, and dew', to behold him devouring his supper with an ardor which flushed his intellectual count...

I think the following may just be the most unromantic proposal of marriage scene I have read:      'So Mrs Van Hopper has had enough of Monte Carlo,' he said, 'and now she wants to go home. So do I. She to New York and I to Manderley. Which would you prefer? You can take your choice.'      'Don't make a joke about it; it's unfair,' I said; 'and I think I had better see about those tickets, and say goodbye now.'      'If you think I'm one of the people who try to be funny at breakfast you're wrong,' he said. 'I'm invariably ill-tempered in the early morning. I repeat to you, the choice is open to you. Either you go to America with Mrs Van Hopper or you come home to Manderley with me.'      'Do you mean you want a secretary or something?'      'No, I'm asking you to marry me, you little fool.' From Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. It's no wonder she had to ask what he meant . And in case ...

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them ." Ray Bradbury (1920 - )

... the following quotation seems like wonderful praise of reading and books: "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library."  Taken in context, it of course means quite the opposite:  Darcy took up a book; Miss Bingley did the same; and Mrs. Hurst, principally occupied in playing with her bracelets and rings, joined now and then in her brother's conversation with Miss Bennet. Miss Bingley's attention was quite as much engaged in watching Mr. Darcy's progress through his book, as in reading her own; and she was perpetually either making some inquiry, or looking at his page. She could not win him, however, to any conversation; he merely answered her question, and read on. At length, quite exhausted by the attempt to be amused with her own book, which she had only chosen because it was the second volume of his, ...

The best part of the fiction in many novels is the notice that the characters are purely imaginary. Franklin Pierce Adams (1881-1960)