“I can’t think of any greater happiness than to be with you all the time, without interruption, endlessly, even though I feel that here in this world there’s no undisturbed place for our love, neither in the village nor anywhere else; and I dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more.”
― Franz Kafka's The Castle
― Franz Kafka's The Castle
“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”
― The Metamorphosis
― The Metamorphosis
“I always feel as if I'm struggling to become someone else. As if I'm trying to find a new place, grab hold of a new life, a new personality. I suppose it's part of growing up, yet it's also an attempt to re-invent myself. By becoming a different me, I could free myself of everything. I seriously believed I could escape myself - as long as I made the effort. But I always hit a dead end. No matter where I go, I still end up me. What's missing never changes. The scenery may change, but I'm still the same old incomplete person. The same missing elements torture me with a hunger that I can never satisfy. I think that lack itself is as close as I'll come to defining myself.”
― South of the Border, West of the Sun
― South of the Border, West of the Sun
“If I stayed here, something inside me would be lost forever—something I couldn't afford to lose. It was like a vague dream, a burning, unfulfilled desire. The kind of dream people have only when they're seventeen.”
― South of the Border, West of the Sun
― South of the Border, West of the Sun
“Even now, whenever I think of her, I envision a quiet Sunday morning. A gentle, clear day, just getting under way. No homework to do, just a Sunday when you could do what you wanted. She always gave me this kick-back-and-relax, Sunday-morning kind of feeling.”
― South of the Border, West of the Sun
― South of the Border, West of the Sun
Randel’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Randel’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Art, Biography, Classics, Comics, Contemporary, Crime, Ebooks, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic novels, Historical fiction, History, Horror, Manga, Music, Mystery, Non-fiction, Philosophy, Poetry, Romance, Science fiction, Suspense, Spirituality, Thriller, and Travel
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