“Elective ignorance was a great survival skill, perhaps the greatest.”

“Talking is the most dangerous form of intercourse.”
#hanifkureishi #thelastword #morethanfriends

I was blown away by this book. Tara Westover is an inspiration but I can‘t help but feel sad and lonely for her and the Westover family because they have gone their separate ways and do not communicate with each other. I hope they make amends one day.

“There has been a great diversity of the debate of the subject,” it wrote, “but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger colour, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” (“The Descent of Man” by Grayson Perry, 2017)

People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves. It is what I call the depth of generosity.

“Busbecq believed there were two blessings in life: books and friends. And that they should be possessed in inverse quantities: many books but only a handful of friends.” I hold the same belief 🙌🏼

My favourite thing to do while I wait is to read. So you‘ll see lots of #whileiwait posts. Today I accompanied dad to run errands. So he ran in and out, and I waited. I hope to finish this book in three days max — it‘s already September, mannn I‘m so behind my goal of 50 books for the #goodreadschallenge2018. I loved Elif Shafak‘s The Forty Rules of Love, and Three Daughters of Eve; I know I‘ll love this one too.

I made the mistake of watching the tv series first before I started on the book. And so now I picture Elizabeth Moss as the narrator tells her story; Joseph Fiennes‘s face when she talks about the Commander; and Max Minghella‘s beautiful face (ahem) when she describes Nick; but there isn‘t a Cora in the series so I get to imagine her.

Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse, for some.

“If i were a different kind of person, I might say that this whole incident is a metaphor for life in general; things get broken, and sometimes they get repaired, and in most cases, you realize that no matter what gets damaged, life arranges itself to compensate for your loss, sometimes wonderfully.”

“One thing about parents. They fug you up.”
“Do you think they mean to?”
“They may not. But they do, don‘t they?”
“Yeah, but it‘s not really their fault, is it?”

Sounds like a reference to #philiplarkin‘s #thisbetheverse?

“I am very glad I have travelled.  Travel improves the mind wonderfully, and does away with all one‘s prejudices.”

One can love a friend as much as a wife. Passion has its own laws.

If you read books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

It's the memory of extravagance that makes other times hard.