Words Nourish the Hungry

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

Rating: ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

Comments: Such a beautiful book. There are so many hidden layers to this one. So simple, yet so profound.

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“There’s a great line by Groucho Marx,” I said. “She’s so in love with me she doesn’t know anything. That’s why she’s in love with me.”

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Way back when the Sam Peckinpah movie The Wild Bunch premiered, a woman journalist raised her hand at the press conference and asked the following: “Why in the world do you have to show so much blood all over the place?” She was pretty worked up about it. One of the actors, Ernest Borgnine, looked a bit perplexed and fielded the question. “Lady, did you ever see anyone shot by a gun without bleeding?” This film came out at the height of the Vietnam War.

I love that line. That’s gotta be one of the principles behind reality. Accepting things that are hard to comprehend, and leaving them that way. And bleeding. Shooting and bleeding.

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Every story has a time to be told, I convinced her. Otherwise you’ll forever be a prisoner to the secret inside you.

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We each have a special something we can get only at a special time of our life. Like a small flame. A careful, fortunate few cherish that flame, nurture it, hold it as a torch to light their way. But once that flame goes out, it’s gone forever.

Nov 13, 2007

Reviewing and Sharing

One of the things I love to do when I read is underline sentences and passages that speak to me or that are exceptionally well-written, no matter whether the book is fiction or non-fiction. When I borrow a book from a friend, I sometimes make note of what they’ve underlined or scribbled in the margins. When people borrow my books, I encourage them to note their thoughts in it. It’s why I love used books– they’re so personal. I understand this is something a lot of readers do.

I recently sent a book to someone in Japan. “It’s aged, torn and yellowed,” I told him. The book is, very surely, older than I am by a few decades. I’m not even sure you can read it properly. Send it anyway, he said. He received it a couple of weeks ago and e-mailed me. “It’s an antique!” he wrote. “Thanks so much for sending it.” I have a feeling he’s going to save it for as long as my mother and I did until another person with a love of crumbling yellow pages comes along. I can see him underlining passages, turning pages very carefully, and reading everything that’s been written by previous readers in the blank spaces.

So instead of recommending books on this blog or reviewing them, I’ve decided instead to share some of those passages that I’ve found fascinating in books I’ve enjoyed. Whether or not you pick up the book based on those is up to you. Reviews are pretty subjective and can be found elsewhere. Here, I’ll give you a taste of the actual thing. I’ll start tomorrow.

Nov 12, 2007

2 Comments

Why I Will Never Get Any Work Done Again

Because it’s just too tempting to sit here and stare at this for hours, you see.

Check this out: http://flickrvision.com/ (you see who’s uploading photos and from where in real-time.)

And then there’s this: http://www.lkozma.net/wpv/index.html (also real-time, edits to the English Wikipedia)

Nov 11, 2007

Quotes I Live By

Some of my favorite quotes:
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“It turned out that this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And he said– gently– that they believe when a lot of things start going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born– and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.” – Anne Lamott

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“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

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“I get up. I fall down. Meanwhile, I dance.” (I wasn’t able to find a source for this one. I’m not sure I’m even quoting correctly. This quote is etched in my memory, so e-mail me if you know where it came from.)

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“Nothing, not love, not greed, not passion or hatred, is stronger than a writer’s need to change another writer’s copy.” – Arthur Evans

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“What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working even when he’s staring out the window.” – Burton Rascoe

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“I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I write and I understand.” – Chinese Proverb

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“I have always imagined that Paradise would be a kind of library.” – Jorge Luis Borges

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“Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers the opportunity to live it.” – John Hersey

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“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” – Mark Twain

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“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” – Oscar Wilde

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“The moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you’ve already stopped loving that person forever.” – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Nov 10, 2007