“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
― The Bell Jar
― The Bell Jar
“Footfalls echo in the memory, down the passage we did not take, towards the door we never opened, into the rose garden.”
― Four Quartets
― Four Quartets
“A Word is Dead
A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.”
― The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.”
― The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
― The World As I See It
― The World As I See It
Kelly’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Kelly’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Polls voted on by Kelly
Lists liked by Kelly







