“Flowers that grow where old ones have withered serve to remind us that death will one day come to us all.”
― Memoirs of a Geisha
― Memoirs of a Geisha
“When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?”
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
“Bea says that the art of reading is slowly dying, that it's an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day.”
― The Shadow of the Wind
― The Shadow of the Wind
“There's so much humanity in a love of trees, so much nostalgia for our first sense of wonder, so much power in just feeling our own insignificance when we are surrounded by nature…yes, that's it: just thinking about trees and their indifferent majesty and our love for them teaches us how ridiculous we are - vile parasites squirming on the surface of the earth - and at the same time how deserving of life we can be, when we can honor this beauty that owes us nothing.”
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
“When something is bothering me, I seek refuge. No need to travel far; a trip to the realm of literary memory will suffice. For where can one find more noble distraction, more entertaining company, more delightful enchantment than in literature?”
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Raquel’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Raquel’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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