“I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy. And yet I cannot pretend that the reading I have done in my adult years matches in its impact on my soul the reading I did as a child. I still believe in stories. I still forget myself when I am in the middle of a good book. Yet it is not the same. Books are, for me, it must be said, the most important thing; what I cannot forget is that there was a time when they were at once more banal and more essential than that. When I was a child, books were everything. And so there is in me, always, a nostalgic yearning for the lost pleasure of books. It is not a yearning that one ever expects to be fulfilled.”
― The Thirteenth Tale
― The Thirteenth Tale
“I get sentimental over the music of the ’90s. Deplorable, really. But I love it all. As far as I’m concerned the ’90s was the best era for music ever, even the stuff that I loathed at the time, even the stuff that gave me stomach cramps.”
― Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time
― Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time
“His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred. Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been effortless.”
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“Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.”
― The Rebel
― The Rebel
“What you end up remembering isn't always the same as what you have witnessed.”
― The Sense of an Ending
― The Sense of an Ending
Howida’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Howida’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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