Lost in a good book

Random quote of the day:


“A person who won’t read good books has no advantage over one who can’t read."

—attributed to Mark Twain





Here's what twainquotes.com (a wonderful scholarly site) has to say about this quote:

In Nice Guys Finish Seventh, (1992) by Ralph Keyes: "Abby Van Buren once made this observation in her advice column. A reader said she should have credited the thought to Mark Twain. Abby apologized, explaining that she genuinely thought the idea was her own. Perhaps it was. Although this saying is often attributed to Twain, no one has ever confirmed that he said it" (p. 111).

However, this quote has been found in a December 31, 1914 edition of The State (Columbia, S.C.) which gave the source as the Inland Steel Company, Safety Bulletin No. 10. This places it much earlier than "Dear Abby," but still with no acceptable confirmation of source.




( Illustrated version. )

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Look around, leaves are brown

In yesterday's post I spoke of time being a writer's friend. I am reminded that we live in a society that doesn't value time—or rather, the natural rhythms of time, the slow pace of natural cycles. We're always spending time, faster and faster, filling it with occupations and quicker ways of doing things—largely, I suspect, to avoid thinking about what comes after when we run out of time.

I'm not an enemy of technology and instant gratification. Far from it. I think it's great to live in the future, and have so many resources at our fingertips, so much neat swag and cool gizmos. But sometimes the cost of all this speed and tech and stuff is too high. Anything of value takes time: time to learn, time to know, time to savor. We live in a time that makes us work hard to find the space and breath to savor anything. I have to constantly remind myself to stop, take a moment, breathe, look at the sky, smell the crisp air, feel the wind on my face. Savor the world. Let it savor you. You don't always have to run after it full tilt. Have patience that you will find it and it will find you.


"A soulless world encourages faster, quicker, thrashing about to find the one filament that seems to be the one that will burn forever and right now. However, the miracle we are seeking takes time: time to find it, time to bring it to life.

The modern search for a perpetual motion machine rivals the search for a perpetual love machine. It is not surprising that people trying to love become confused and harried, and as in Hans Christian Anderson's story 'The Red Shoes,' dance a mad dance, unable to stop the frantic jig, and whirl right past the things they, in their deepest hearts, cherish most."

—Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With the Wolves


But enough of the serious junk, here's the Bangles covering Simon & Garfunkel:

Watch on YouTube