My favorite quote this week…
“That is what you get for bringing the whole hand when only a fingertip is needed.” ~ Jeffrey Bennett
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Wislawa Szymborksa’s “Teenager” is simply amazing…
… and so is Lidia Yuknavitch’s “The Urgent Matter of Books.” Read this. And then, please, please, please, read a book…
… and I guess I should just have Bentlily be a regular weekly feature – along with my favorite quote, my favorite Bentlily poem. If you’re not reading her, you absolutely should be. “A Ravenous Mission” made my heart sing.
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I’m reading (and absolutely loving) American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It’s a borrowed book though, and I’m realizing that I should never read borrowed books. I’m distracted by how careful I have to be. I can’t dogear the pages, or write in the margins, or underline passages. I’m reading politely and that is so NOT me. My books are read hard and loved fiercely. They bear the scars of my passion. If you borrow a book from me, you’ll see right where it touched me, woke me up, turned me inside out, handed me the world as I’d never seen it before.
Reading someone else’s book is like reading with reins on when all I want to do is run wild.
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This is 4 minutes of beautiful. Please watch.
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I have a soft spot for Legos, so I think this is cool.
And so is this, but in a totally different way.
All of these pictures are intriguing and beautiful, but I love, love, love 49 Stories.
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I wasn’t sure how to pronounce edamame, so I looked it up. Here you go. (But mostly, check out the name of the site.)
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I leave you with a bit of silliness. A couple of weeks ago, on our way back from a hike through Morgan Territory, we were stopped by a group (herd? gaggle? gang?) of wild turkeys crossing the road. We waited for them to pass and when they were safely off to the side, Chad and the turkeys sang a duet.
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Have a beautiful weekend, especially all you moms out there.
xoxo
Such a great list of lovelies, j!
Loved the videos and photos and writings and – guess I’ll just use the word ‘everything’ next time :-)
And I love what you said about reading other people’s books. Even though I’m very careful with my own books too, that extra carefulness distracts from the fun!
PS: That’s a great duet at the end there – Chad’s talented ;-)
There does seem to be two kinds of readers. My closest friend is a careful reader. She loves her books too much to ever defile them. I, on the other hand, feel there is something wonderful in the fact that when I’m finished, both the book and I are forever changed. ;-)
I like American Gods a lot. I read it two years ago. There’s so much symbolism that you end up writing your own version of the book in your head.
Happy Friday
It’s a ride every time I open it. Happy Friday back to you, my friend.
thanks for the giggles and the laughs
I soo know what you mean about reading other peoples books…
just read World Without End in hardcover and it is a huge asssed book and I dragged that thing everywhere being oh so careful… always read while eating lunch at work so there were many things to keep off it’s beautiful pages.. finally hand it back and my sister says…” oh I don’t want it you can keep it ”
Chad and the turkeys will give me a giggle again all day
gobble gobble
have an awesome day
Yes, I read the hardcover of Goon Squad and I, at first, was reluctant to over-love it. Eventually though, I succumbed to my wild book reading nature.
“I’m reading politely and that is so NOT me. My books are read hard and loved fiercely. They bear the scars of my passion” Beautifully said. I live around the conrer from a library (I know, lucky me) and I, too must be very careful and respect the book as not my property to manhandle.
Add “flock” to your word choices. I love the Chad/Turkey ensemble.
I know. I LOVE libraries. And I’m such a bad patron.
Right. Flock. *slaps forehead*
“If you borrow a book from me, you’ll see right where it touched me, woke me up, turned me inside out, handed me the world as I’d never seen it before.”
Now that is the effect I want to have on a reader (or just on a person…). that in itself inspires me to dig deeper , to not express and create just from the surface, but to mine in the far reaches of the soul for precious treasure.
I think this will be my favorite quote of the week. :-)
Yay! I get to be the favorite quote!
Love the list!
My favorite thing is the music painting. Watched it twice!
I am not prone to writing in books, nor to bending page corners. I do enjoy coming across marginalia in used books, but I tend to keep my interaction with the book in my head. Maybe I should consider the future used-book buyer, and start scribbling. :-)
Happy weekending!
I love that too. It’s part of why I loved used books. I actually don’t often write in the margins, only now and then. I often highlight, underline, make little hearts for the passages that melt my literary heart.
I hope you had a spectacular weekend.
One of your bookmarks crawled to my door last night.
I threw on the lights, blasted the door open prepared
for puncture repair, but what I saw instead filled me
with gravity, a measure of the size of this world. . .
I took it in, cleared a space on my desk, opened The
Elements of Style to any page, and placed your bookmark
there. A humming, the house began to shake, and it
dawned on me what must have happened.
It had no choice but to find me, to find help, because
the margins were filling with wisdom, all the books on
your shelves were flying off, suggestive of a moon,
waves of j-wisdom filling every page, off the pages
in frighteningly fast wave, the perfect storm, the one
that didn’t get away. It emptied its stomach on my shirt.
“It’s a wonderful dream you’ve had. Get some rest,
and let’s see what we can do about getting you back
home tomorrow.” Your bookmark is fine. I was going
to suggest that you lock the liquor cabinet, but then
it occurred to me that that would just be a silly idea.
P.S. Please find enclosed, one shirt with letters of
varying sizes spilled on it. All “j”‘s.
Silly indeed. And if commenting is an art, you are most certainly an artist.
The thing that amazes me about j-lists is the consistency always stupendous. Teenager and The Urgent Matter of Books rocked my world. I re-shared the Rumpus piece… I also love Lego.
Awww. Thank you! I felt the same way about Teenager and The Urgent Matter of Books. I wish I’d written them. They are the eloquence I aspire to.