Quotation about the search for a good book, from Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night A Traveller:
You have forced your way through the [book] shop past the thick barricades of Books You Haven't Read, which were frowning at you from the tables and shelves, trying to cow you. But you know you must never allow yourself to be awed, that among them there extend for acres and acres the Books You Needn't Read, the Books Made For Purposes Other Than Reading, Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong To The Category of Book Read Before Being Written. And thus you pass the outer girdle of ramparts, but then you are attacked by the infantry of Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered. With a rapid manoeuvre you bypass them and move into the phalanxes of the Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First, the Books Too Expensive Now And You'll Wait Till They're Remaindered, the Books ditto When They Come Out In Paperback, Books You Can Borrow From Somebody, Books That Everyone's Read So It's As If You Had Read Then, Too. Eluding these assaults, you come up beneath the towers of the fortress where other troops are holding out:
the Books You've Been Planning To Read For Ages,
the Books You've Been Hunting For Years Without Success,
the Books Dealing With Something You've Been Working On At The Moment
the Books You Want To Own So They'll Be Handy Just In Case
the Books You Could Put Aside Maybe To Read This Summer
the Books You Need To Go With Other Books On Your Shelves
the Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified
Welcome to Teresa's World!
This is my oldest blog - I now have several other blogs/websites for different areas of my life, different ways I think. You can check out old posts on this blog for glimpses into my life from long ago, or else check out newer posts at my various other blogs and websites for more insight into my current life and thought patterns...
Dream Big, Play Big - my personal development & life-hacking blog
Read With Teresa - the books that have been filling my head lately
MultiPassionate Coaching - living life with 'too many' interests and passions
PhysArt - dancing, moving, body-hacking
Me on OkCupid - my thoughts on relationships and such
and of course, my main personal website...
Or if you want more up-to-date stuff about what I'm doing, and things I'm interested in, come subscribe to me on Facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment