“Here's what it's like to go into hell: anything horrible that came before this crash is replayed for you, at rapid speed, with heightened lightning, with louder sound, with brighter colors, with higher production values than you can imagine. You can't stop it, and you can't stop it, and you can't stop it.”
― The Labors of Hercules Beal
― The Labors of Hercules Beal
“In this desert, no one, neither he nor his guest, mattered. And yet outside this desert, neither of them, Daru knew, could have truly lived.”
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“We must acknowledge the utter fragility of what holds our lives together—our institutions, our shared labor, our love, our mourning—and yet keep faith with what offers no final guarantee. This is the double movement of secular faith. (377)”
― This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom
― This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom
“We are here to help you carry the sky when you have to, and we are here to help you put it down when you need to. Why else would anyone ever become a teacher?”
― The Labors of Hercules Beal
― The Labors of Hercules Beal
“To keep faith in mortal life, then, is to remain vulnerable to a pain that no strength can finally master. Mortality is not only intrinsic to what makes life meaningful, but also makes life susceptible to lose meaning and become unbearable. The point is not to overcome this vulnerability but to recognize that it is an essential part of why our lifes matter and why we care. (49)”
― This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom
― This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom
Karsten’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Karsten’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Karsten
Lists liked by Karsten









