Posts tagged Lit
Vintage Books & Anchor Books
Books. Books!
“Death left its old tragic heaven and became the lyrical core of man: his invisible truth, his visible secret.”
― Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception
“A terraced house on a tree-lined street. Earlier today, the house rang with the sound of children’s cries and adult voices, but since the last occupant took off (with her satchel) a few hours ago, it has been left to sample the morning by itself. The sun has risen over the gables of the buildings opposite and now washes through the ground-floor windows, painting the interior walls a buttery yellow and warming the grainy-red brick facade. Within shafts of sunlight, platelets of dust move as if in obedience to the rhythms of a silent waltz. From the hallway, the low murmur of accelerating traffic can be detected a few blocks away. Occasionally, the letter-box opens with a rasp to admit a plaintive leaflet…. The house gives signs of enjoying the emptiness.”
―Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness
―Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness
“For A Poet”
I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth,
And laid them away in a box of gold;
Where long will cling the lips of the moth,
I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth;
I hide no hate; I am not even wroth
Who found the earth’s breath so keen and cold;
I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth,
And laid them away in a box of gold.
—Countee Cullen
Today is the anniversary of the birth of Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen (born today in 1903; d.1946).
Interviewer: “What question do you find most surprising that people ask you about writing?”
Mandanipour: “Why do you write? What are you writing for?’ It is like being asked, why do you breathe?”
―Shahriar Mandanipoor, Censoring an Iranian Love Story
“Dr. Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.”
—Anita Brookner, The Debut
Hello Nietzsche
“We don’t always do the things our parents want us to do, but it is their mistake if they can’t find a way to love us anyway.”
— J. Courtney Sullivan, COMMENCEMENT
President Obama chats in the Blue Room of the White House with author Toni Morrison, who received a Presidential Medal of Freedom yesterday.
Congratulations to the Strand Bookstore (New York, NY), which is celebrating its 85th birthday today. Ben Bass founded the store in 1927 on New York’s old Book Row; the Strand is the only one of those famous bookstores left.
(via Shelf Awareness)
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
― Paulo Coelho
